To The Future

by Peter Davison

originally published in The Atlantic



I in completing
this poem
hope at least

to outlive the journey
from a notebook page
to the freedom of

one fair copy to be handed
to a friend and then
to other friends

one of whom may
see to it that
these words are

copied or left about so that
some person who knows nothing of
me who wrote them

may notice and
take the poem as a
delight or disturbance.

May it enlist or
puzzle readers enough so
that by undertaking its traffic

they may speak its language to
multiply its effect
and by voicing both
deliver me to you.

Peter Davison (1928—2004) was The Atlantic's poetry editor for thirty years.