Former United States Poet Laureate and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, Robert Pinsky, is the author of six books of poetry: Jersey Rain, The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems 1966-1996, The Want Bone, History of My Heart, An Explanation of America, and Sadness and Happiness. He has been nominated for numerous awards, written literary criticism, and translated Dante and Czeslaw Milosz. He is the editor for the online Slate magazine and teaches in the graduate writing program at Boston University.

Samurai Song

When I had no roof I made

Audacity my roof. When I had

No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.

When I had no ears I thought.

When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made

Care my father. When I had

No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made

Quiet my friend. When I had no

Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made

My voice my temple. I have

No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no means fortune

Is my means. When I have

Nothing, death will be my fortune.

Need is my tactic, detachment

Is my strategy. When I had

No lover I courted my sleep.