Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry: Regret and Snap

Edited and introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate

In today?s poems, Bob Brooks of Stockton Springs offers two very different perspectives on mistakes. In ?Regret? he looks back sadly on mistakes he has made; in ?Snap,? a mouse looks joyfully ahead, unaware that it is making them.

Regret by Bob Brooks

It?s like skipping a stone?
one thing reminds me of another.
And when the stone sinks,
I don?t go after it.
I don?t go after it.
But when the stone sinks,
it reminds me of another.
Another regret
like a skipping stone
I don?t go after?
another stone,
sinking.

Snap by Bob Brooks

Poor mousie
living for months
on toilet paper
from the linen closet
one day finds bagels
and English muffins
in a kitchen cupboard
thinks she?s died
and gone to heaven
          yep

Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2011 by Bob Brooks. Reprinted from Unguarded Crossing, Antrim House, 2011, by permission of Bob Brooks. Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to David Turner, Special Assistant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at poetlaureate@mainewriters.org or 207-228-8263.