To go somewhere else

you can get there by drifting.

You will never be nowhere

because nowhere

is never there.

So go by not staying.

Drift by being
beside yourself

with laughter,

or with grief,

or with the many things,

little or big, that are bound

to happen.

You cannot be above it all

because there is

so much sky up there,

and you must always have

grounds sufficient

to stand on, as you drift

and after you arrive.

No need to know

where you are.

You will always

be somewhere

else.

Joseph Stanton is a Professor of Art History and American Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and a widely published poet. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Poetry East, Harvard Review, Ekphrasis, New York Quarterly, Antioch Review, New Letters, and many other journals and anthologies.