Daniel Thomas Moran, born in New York City in 1957, is the author of six volumes of poetry, the most recent - Looking for the Uncertain Past – was published at Poetry Salzburg at The University of Salzburg in 2006. Daniel has read widely at libraries, schools and universities throughout New York City and Long Island as well as in Ireland, Italy and Austria. His work, which has appeared in several journals, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize on five occasions. The poet, who is now a member of PEN American, has been the holder of positions such as the vice-presidency of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association from 1997-2005 and Poet Laureate of Suffolk County, New York in 2005. Daniel is a practicing dentist on Shelter Island where he lives with his wife.

Quelle: poetry p f


When Nothing Happens

I have stared out
through this window before.
Many times.
Who knows
the sums of such things?

I was there this morning,
a fresh mug of coffee
sending the aroma of waking
up from the table beside me.

Yesterday, the trees
were the waving arms
of children at a parade.
The sunrise was
a golden flood.

In Winter, the finches
were the ghosts of Spring.
The frozen pond
a tomb for the sky.

The Christmas cactus was
the ebon night above us
on The Fourth of July, and
the hill which lifts this house
fell away from the porch
like the falter toward eternity.

But on this day,
the glass is only glass.
The rain is only the rain.
This morning is but the
last of last night.
The cats are just cats.
The leaves of the laurel
look as they do, and

I am only a man
in an old robe,
cradling a cooled cup,
capped pen in his pocket,
and likely to be late
for work.

Published in Poetry Salzburg Review