I Saw a Shimmering Light

When Danny sang his singing was his name
And like a Danny……Danny whom you know
Have known……at least one once a Danny though
How many years since……you’ve still got the same

Unwillingness to speak unwillingness
To sit in a group silence……Danny would
Still know you……when he pulled you to the side
Like a man waved……away the other boys

Like he was saying I’ve got this one you
Were this one gotten……but for what……and guided
You to the tunnel near the wall……and hidden
In the tunnel……from the other boys sang “Ho-

tel California” stopping at the end
Of every line he sang to explain the line
Not singing……talking while he talked……no sign
No sound of the other boys no giggling friend

Listening……you were both eight……what did Dan-
ny sound like must have sounded like a boy
Not……great a child……what is this memory
Of beauty you will never hear again

Shane McCrae

Shane McCrae

Shane McCrae’s most recent books are Sometimes I Never Suffered, a finalist for the Maya Angelou Book Award, the T. S. Eliot Prize, and the Rilke Prize, and Cain Named the Animal, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He has received a Lannan Literary Award, a Whiting Writer’s Award, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.
Shane McCrae

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Author: Shane McCrae

Shane McCrae’s most recent books are Sometimes I Never Suffered, a finalist for the Maya Angelou Book Award, the T. S. Eliot Prize, and the Rilke Prize, and Cain Named the Animal, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He has received a Lannan Literary Award, a Whiting Writer’s Award, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.