For Those Who Would See by Derek Sheffield

the swift and ceaseless sprinkler whirling
and flinging its bright globes

drop by drop has filled a blue bowl
left out on the lawn. The little pool
formed by that embrace never stops

breaking and regathering—winks of calm
coming between bouts of splattering—

and in the way the pool accepts
each troubling drop so it becomes
the surface that in the next instant

shatters at the next and so on,
this is also clearly a matter of light

splashed and light
scattered in all directions
for anyone who happens to be watching.

Derek Sheffield’s most recent collection, Not for Luck (MSU Press, 2021), was chosen by Mark Doty for the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize. His first collection, Through the Second Skin, was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. He is a co-editor of Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy (Trinity, 2020). His awards include fellowships from Artist Trust and the Sustainable Arts Foundation and the James Hearst Poetry Prize judged by Li-Young Lee. Derek lives with his family on the east slopes of the Cascades in Washington State and is the poetry editor of Terrain.org.