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Stephen Knauth

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Night Pieces
Night Pieces
August 25, 2025 Knauth Stephen

Night Pieces

 

1

The hickories live close by—
bitternut, shagbark, whiteheart.
At night, upstairs, a slight breeze
that has passed among them
parts the curtains and flows
freely through the open
architecture of a sleeping child.

 

2

A mortal cry,
though it’s just the night train,
long rusted eminence headed west.
If its dark song reaches you tonight
in the far mountains where it always seems to rain,
let it be my apology to you.

 

3

Not long ago
a family traveling at night
without a lantern
might hitch a white horse
at the front of the team
to show the way
one white horse
at a time.

Stephen Knauth is the author of All Calm Beyond (Four Way Books, 2025) and Dear Dusk (Cloudbank Books, 2025) and four other collections of poetry. He has published in many national journals, including Ploughshares, FIELD, North American Review, Virginia Quarterly, Review, Washington Square Review, The Sun, Prairie Schooner, and Poetry Daily, as well as in numerous anthologies. He has twice received creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and has also been awarded fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council. A native of Hales Corners, Wisconsin, he grew up in Buffalo and Pittsburgh. He lives with his family in Charlotte and works as a freelance writer and editor.

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