Of Ten or More in a Room
by Scott Owens
One will be thinking of dinner.
One will be humming a Pretender’s tune
in her head. Two or more will look
out the window and think of something
they’ve forgotten to do. If you’re lucky
two will be hanging on every word.
The rest will be so sad
they can hardly keep their faces on.
But one, one will be writing a poem
so beautiful you can see trees
in her eyes. Flowers will bloom in the corners
of her mouth, and in the crease of her forehead
the knowledge in that moment that says
Right now, I care for you all.
Author of six collections of poetry and over 600 poems published in journals and anthologies, Scott Owens (webpage, blog) is editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review, Vice President of the Poetry Council of North Carolina, and recipient of awards from the Pushcart Prize Anthology, the Academy of American Poets, the NC Writers’ Network, the NC Poetry Society, and the Poetry Society of SC. He holds an MFA from UNC Greensboro and currently teaches at Catawba Valley Community College.
qarrtsiluni 
Ahhh, I just fell in love with a poem.
Thank you, Karen. What a lovely comment.
Beautiful, Scott. Just beautiful. (And so true.)
Thank you, Helen. And thank you for listening.
Oh good!
This is a delight. It also could be a poetry reading where only ten show up –been there. And haven’t you been guilty of all those thoughts? I wrote a lovely poem in my head one time while listening to a bad reading. And Of course couldn’t remember it. It was no doubt a pretty bad one.
Yes, I agree. A poem to fall in love with.
Hanging on every word.
Thanks, Lucy, Mary, and Daniela. And Mary, you’re right. I’ve read to as few as two and as many as two hundred, and I admit that I’ve been caught writing my own poems at more than one reading.