Summary

In "Not everything is a poem," the speaker empties her "son's pockets before" doing "the wash," and finds "one acorn, two rocks . . . a chunk of mulch, a wilted / dandelion" (65). She wants to make a poem of this experience. She is careful not to look for poems in other experiences because they remind her of difficult times. One of these times was when her son was sick. He turned the color of "a field of flowers" (67). Though "he lived," that experience was not a poem (67). She lets this moment be as it is.

In "Confession," whenever her son gets a bad fever, the speaker considers the existence of God. As she tends to his ailing body, she wonders if this is the sort of experience that makes people believe in a divine power. She tries to imagine "being / held" by a more powerful hand...