In this week’s poem, John Paul Caponigro’s “Looking at My Landscape,” the speaker describes the experience of standing at a window and seeing the land through his own reflection. I love this poem’s simple but visceral central image and its quietly profound act of seeing.

Caponigro is a visual artist and author. He leads unique adventures in the wildest places on earth to help participants make deeper connections with nature and themselves creatively.

Poets, please note that submissions to Deep Water are open now and through the end of the year. Deep Water is especially eager to share poems by Black writers, writers of color, Indigenous writers, LGBTQ+ writers, and other underrepresented voices. You’ll find a link to submit in the credits below.

Looking At My Landscape

Looking at my landscape,
undulating mounds under sky’s breath,
behind glass, I catch a glimpse of
myself reflected; on it, in it, one with it.

I shift back and forth and near and far,
eyes searching. The land stays the same, or rather
the image of it does not change while I do.

I make contact eye to eye
while looking for the eye of the land.

I see myself seeing.

— John Paul Caponigro

Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. DEEP WATER: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. ”Looking at My Landscape,” copyright © 2024 by John Paul Caponigro, appears by permission of the author. Submissions to Deep Water are open now and through the end of the year. For more information, go to mainewriters.org/deep-water.