What women wander?
Not many. All. A few.
Most would, now & then,
& no wonder.
Some, and I’m one,
Wander sitting still.
My small grandmother
Bought from every peddler
Less for the ribbons and lace
Than for their scent
Of sleep where you will,
Walk out when you want, choose
Your bread and your company.

She warned me, “Have nothing to lose.”

She looked fragile but had
High blood, runner’s ankles,
Could endure, endure.
She loved her rooted garden, her
Grand children, her once
Wild once young man.
Women wander
As best they can.

Marie Ponsot, who passed away yesterday at the age of 98, was the author of seven collections of poetry, including The Bird Catcher (Knopf, 1998), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry, and, most recently, Easy (Random House, 2009).  She was also a prolific translator of French writers and was especially noted for her translations of LaFontaine. The winner of Poetry magazine’s Ruth Lily Prize for lifetime achievement and the Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America, Ponsot was a professor emerita of English at Queens College, CUNY and also taught at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y, the New School University, and Beijing University. She was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2010 to 2014.