Heaven’s Gate by Robert Morgan

In her nineties and afraid

of weather and of falling if

she wandered far outside her door,

my mother took to strolling in

the house. Around and round she’d go,

stalking into corners, backtrack,

then turn and speed down hallway, stop

almost at doorways, skirt a table,

march up to the kitchen sink and

wheel to left, then swing into

the bathroom, almost stumble on

a carpet there. She must have walked

a hundred miles or more among

her furniture and family pics,

mementos of her late husband.

Exercising heart and limb,

outwalking stroke, attack, she strode,

not restless like a lion in zoo,

but with a purpose and a gait,

and kept her eyes on heaven’s gate.

 American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “Heaven’s Gate,” from DARK ENERGY by Robert Morgan, copyright ©2015 by Robert Morgan. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Introduction copyright © 2015 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.