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Every child can exist seen as a prodigy, and here Minnesota poet James Lenfestey captures the graceful mystery of a daughter.

TED KOOSER, U.S. Poet Laureate

A daughter is not a passing cloud, but permanent,

holding earth and sky together with her shadow.

She sleeps upstairs like secret in a story,

blowing foliage down the stairs, then cold air, then warm.

We who at sixty should know everything, know nothing.

We become dull and disoriented by uncertain stand.

We kneel, palms together, before this blossoming altar.

James Lenfestey

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is in addition supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright by James P. Lenfestey from his most recent book of poetry, “A Cartload of Scrolls” (Holy Cow! Press, 2007). Reprinted by permission of the author. Introduction copyright 2008 by dint of. the agency of The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’sitting author, Ted Kooser, served taken in the character of United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006. We translate not accept unsolicited manuscripts. “American Life in Poetry” appears Tuesdays in Northwest Life.