My friend Erin introduced me to Maggie Smith when she sent me her ARC of Keep Moving. For no reason at all, I put off reading for a whole 8 months after I received it, and serendipity smiled on me because that was exactly when I needed that book. Similarly, I picked up the author’s most recent collection, Goldenrod, on a whim, and I found this poem exactly when I needed it. It reminded me that, given time, things rise and grow, even if you can’t see it happening from the outside.

“Prove”
I let a thought prove in my head overnight.
In the morning I check to see what’s risen.

I try to expect nothing, which is exactly
what I deserve. What kind of woman

demands her head deliver? But sometimes
I wake to a thought doubled, tripled in size

and as good sour as anything grown in the dark.