American life in poetry

Here is a poem by David Bengtson, a Minnesotan, about the simple pleasure of walking through deep snow to the mailbox to see what’s arrived.

Of course, the pleasure is not only in picking up the mail with its surprises, but in the complete experience – being fully alive to the clean cold air and the sound of the wind around the mailbox door.

What Calls Us

In winter, it is what calls us

from seclusion, through endless snow

to the end of a long driveway

where, we hope, it waits –

this letter, this package, this

singing of wind around an opened door.