Isaiah’s Coal

By John Frederick Nims 1913–1999

what more can man desire?

Always, he woke in those days

With a sense of treasure,

His heart a gayer glow

Than his window grand with sun,

As a child, its mind all whirring

With green and hollied pleasure

Wakes in a haze of Christmas!

The season of secrets done.

Or as one on country linen

Wakes with a start one morning—

Then on comfort snugger than pillows

Floats: July at the lake.

Or has married a golden girl

And can hardly believe, but turning

Sees blossom for him that very face

Worshipping cameras take.

Toy trains whirr perky on

Till springs contort beneath;

The middle-age rower slumps

Like a sack—indignant seizure!

Late editions wail

Screen Star in Mystery Death—

Yet in those same days

He woke with a sense of treasure.

Knowing: my love is safe

Though the Rockies plunge like water,

Though surf like a wildfire rage

And omens roam the sky;

Though limbs of the swimmer laze

Pale where the seaweed caught her,

Nothing can touch my love

As dangerous time goes by.

John Frederick Nims, “Isaiah’s Coal” from Selected Poems (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1982). Used by permission of Bonnie Nims.

Source: Selected Poems (The University of Chicago Press, 1982)

Biography

An important translator and previous editor of Poetry magazine, John Frederick Nims (1913—1999) was equally skilled as a poet. Although Nims was born in Michigan, he spent most of his life on the other side of the lake, in Chicago. Generally a classicist in technique, Nims is also well known for his witty epigrams.

Continue reading this biography