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Per Diem Archive: D. Baker August 2013, Kismet

Kismet!

Poems of fate or chance leading to an unexpected course, for a moment, a day, or even a life. I especially like poems that deal with a "hinge" moment, a moment when fate or chance or choices might lead one way or another. Or in which the poet ponders a direction life took. I love the idea that a moment -- any moment -- could be the one that changes the course of a day or even a life, or that someone might gain sudden clarity about such a moment in the past because of a present moment that triggers a connection. Poems like these can make a reader feel a sense of momentum, a possible turning or smoothing path. Perhaps such a poem helps a reader discern something happening in the present moment in his or her own life. Or to see a new possibility, a different way forward, through someone else's hinge moment.

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Author: John McManus
planetarium
my child's grip
starts to loosen
Author: Jim Kacian
somewhere becoming rain becoming somewhere
Author: John Stevenson
hints of autumn
at last the hour has come
to board the train
Author: Tyler Scott Pruett
morning thunder
I pause
even though I'm late
Author: Al Fogel
schoolyard fence — 
when did I end up 
on this side?
Author: Tanya McDonald
fresh gingerbread—
I reread my sister's
coming-out letter
Author: Stephen A. Peters
taking a left 
when I should have gone right 
spring drizzle
Author: John Kinory
perhaps next year 
she says . . .
autumn mist
Author: Cherie Hunter Day
a Coleman lantern
lighting the compromise
quarter moon
Author: Anne LB Davidson
smiles in passing . . .
our lives touch
just this once
Author: Chen-ou Liu
spicy chicken . . .
this impulse to ask
if she’s married
Author: John Quinnett
for a second there
I thought I had the answer
fireflies
Author: Melissa Allen
first date –
he tells me there’s an app
for the moon
Author: William M. Ramsey
not loving you
until the butterfly
on your knee
Author: Scott Glander
    moose tracks
after all this time
         i
    ask you out
Author: J. Zimmerman
not the answer
I was expecting
heat haze
Author: Lesley Walter
blue-sky day -- 
the way that little girl skipped
when her mum said yes
Author: Robert Henry Poulin
mother at the end ends a silence     of who I am
Author: Susan Constable
two of us        sharing this table
strangers        in a foreign land
Author: Kathe L. Palka
asking him to stay –
snow turns to sleet
then to rain
Author: Charl JF Cilliers
I started seeing
leaving myself                         
behind as I walked
Author: Kirsty Karkow
a back road
and a flat tire . . .
the peach blossoms
Author: Francine Banwarth
the planets aligning
       I rearrange
my night
Author: Charles Shiotani
on the road not taken I wake up
Author: George Swede
a small adjustment
to stay en route
sunlit pines
Author: Carolyn M. Hinderliter
tidal shift –
flowers from
my daughter-in-law
Author: Peter Newton
costume party 
another chance
at myself
Author: Tom Clausen
winter stars
our meeting
un-arranged
Author: S. M. Abeles
the poker player
twists his ring—
starry night
Author: Adelaide B. Shaw
blackout—
nothing between me
and the night
Author: Dr. Ignatius Fay
     bare hedge
banked with snow—
     I accept
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