*Feb 14 2026 | Superbly Situated by Robert Myles Hershon

Superbly Situated
by Robert Hershon, 1985 (1936-2021, American)

you politely ask me not to die and i promise not to
right from the beginning—a relationship based on
good sense and thoughtfulness in little things

i would like to be loved for such simple attainments
as breathing regularly and not falling down too often
or because my eyes are brown or my father left-handed

and to be on the safe side i wouldn’t mind if somehow
i became entangled in your perception of admirable objects
so you might say to yourself: i have recently noticed

how superbly situated the empire state building is
how it looms up suddenly behind cemeteries and rivers
so far away you could touch it—therefore i love you

part of me fears that some moron is already plotting
to tear down the empire state building and replace it
with a block of staten island mother/daughter houses

just as part of me fears that if you love me for my cleanliness
i will grow filthy if you admire my elegant clothes
i’ll start wearing shirts with sailboats on them

but i have decided to become a public beach an opera house
a regularly scheduled flight—something that can’t help being
in the right place at the right time—come take your seat

we’ll raise the curtain fill the house start the engines
fly off into the sunrise, the spire of the empire state
the last sight on the horizon as the earth begins to curve

from How to Ride on the Woodlawn Express

Since today is Valentine's Day, I chose a romantic poem. However, I didn't want anything too saccharine or traditional, so I went with this offbeat expression of love.

Oh, wow, I will be checking more from him. While his poetics is offbeat, the underlying emotions are clear as crystal and universal. What a wonderful choice

This was an interesting poem, thanks for sharing it. I haven't heard of this poet before.

"But I have decided to become a public beach..." ?

Maybe I'm reading this one wrong but it sounds like this guy would have liked someone to love him for who he is but doesn't think that's going to happen so he chooses to be convenient or what someone might need him to be; like a plane being on time...... I didn't find that romantic at all, I think it's sad and not what love is.

Love says: wear the shirt with sail boats on it, you have beautiful eyes and to hear you breathe is music to my ears.

>2 saskia17: Nica, what a splendid choice! This is not your typical love poem. It's quirky and loveable. And vulnerable.

"i would like to be loved for such simple attainments
as breathing regularly and not falling down too often"

LOL! I love that!!!

>4 TonjaE: Love says: wear the shirt with sail boats on it, you have beautiful eyes and to hear you breathe is music to my ears.

I like that sentiment, Tonja. That is the universal longing and beauty of love.

>1 saskia17: Another author I'd not come across, really pleased how many times this has happened so far. Will add to my wishlist to read more.

The unconventional love poem reminded me of one which is quite well known here as it was on the schools' curriculum for a while, Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy. I wondered if she is well known beyond the UK too. The poem begins:

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.
It will blind you with tears...

Full poem here: www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/valentine/

>4 TonjaE: Yes, this poem is both longing for unconditional love and fearing he won't find it. You never hear from his partner's point of view; perhaps she would love the shirt with sailboats too.

There is fear both of her falling out of love with him, but also of him changing who he is.

I read it not as wanting to be convenient, but as wanting to be so much a part of her landscape that he is everywhere, a fact of the universe and not an optional extra.

I don't know as much about this author as some others, as is the case with many more recent authors with less scholarly research about them. He was a writer in New York and the director of a non-profit that promoted arts and educational printing for 35 years. He was married and had two children.

Many of my favorite poems by him have to do with relationships between people, not just romantic relationships but familial as well. He has a gift for relaying emotions we can all relate to.

Here's another short example of what I mean:

Sentimental Moment, or Why Did the Baguette Cross the Road?

Don't fill up on bread
I say absent-mindedly
The servings here are huge

My son, whose hair may be
receding a bit, says
Did you really just
say that to me?

What he doesn't know
is that when we're walking
together, when we get
to the curb
I sometimes start to reach
for his hand

>9 saskia17: OH! I love that poem!!! Thank you for sharing it too, Nica. I need to seek out this poet.

>4 TonjaE: The beginning indicates this is an ongoing relationship, so I read the rest as his fears, wishes and all sort of other internal emotional turmoil of being in love. OTOH he wants to be loved unconditionally (I hate that term, only babies are loved unconditionally IMO, but it will do here to signify 'without conditions that have nothing to do with love'), but on the other is eager to be everything she might wish too. He does not wish to be just regularly scheduled flights, but public beaches and an opera house too, so he set himself quite a range, desiring to fulfill not only her mundane needs, but also enjoyable moments and high flying aspirations.

The cleanliness-filthiness and elegance-sail boat shirts I read as fear of self-destructive tendencies. It's not that he likes those shirts or being filthy, but rather he fears he will change in matters she likes, as we sometimes do and undermine our own interests and desires, usually unconsciously. I was quite enamored, but then again I find most traditional romantic tropes unromantic, so perhaps I'm not the best judge in that respect ;)

>9 saskia17: This is gorgeous, love it.

>11 SandraArdnas: I hear you, and I don't like the term unconditional love either because it tries to say there are somehow different degrees of Love.

I say, either it is Love or it isn't.

If you are trying to be something you are not, if someone is telling you (usually non-verbally) - 'be this, or do that and I will love you' - then that is co-dependency not Love.
I think it's true that most people are looking for a relationship where their addictions are met by the other, where they feel they have satisfied, justified and comforted, and received the same in return. That is what this poem describes, and it seems a universal understanding because most people do it, but is that Love?

While I think about what Love is, I find it interesting that it seems much easier to decide what it isn't.

>11 SandraArdnas: yeah, the line about sail boat shirts feels to me like an inside joke, as if both the narrator and his lover are quite vocal about how much the hate sail boat shirts. Therefore, he uses this as an example, a light-hearted one that still underscores how he fears he may lose what made him lovable as he changes, like any person does.

It reminds of something John Green said in Anthropocene Reviewed think, where he talked about how he is still in love with the person his wife was in her 20s, just as he is now in love with the different person she has become in the decades following. People change, but we have the capacity to love people through their variations, though the narrator seems to doubt this sentiment.

I wonder if the last lines in this poem, "fly off into the sunrise, the spire of the empire state
the last sight on the horizon as the earth begins to curve," reflect a change in attitude, a wisdom that acknowledges that time will change both of them, but this can be a positive, even a romantic force, a leaving behind of what made him lovable in the past, like they leave behind the Empire State Building, so they can move forwards towards the new horizons that the future holds for them and their maturing relationship. It's a beautiful image.

This is a great valentine's choice! I really appreciated so many of the lines, such as "i wouldn’t mind if somehow
i became entangled in your perception of admirable objects" - thank you for sharing.

>15 JanelleDV: Glad you liked it! I also love that line. It's like when you see something that inexplicably reminds you of someone you love; you just think of them at the faintest trigger.

>1 saskia17: reading this I could just imagine the speaker wanting to be on the stage and singing to their love, this is wonderfully off-beat and I'm going to see if I can find some more, thanks for posting

this has 2 more poems by Robert Myles Hershon here https://medium.com/the-awl/two-poems-by-robert-hershon-efa5cc128ef9

they both made me laugh, the ending is unexpected, made me day, just brilliant

Reading again brings a strong sense of wistfulness from the lighthearted humour, good-natured and self-effacing but at the core focused on the connection between two people. At the root, acknowledging that as important as that connection is, so much is outside our control, despite wanting to do right by the vital importance of our connection.

What to do about that? -- something so important, and yet ultimately so immune to guarantees or assurance? I think that's what gets me about this poem, having to balance those two perspectives which seem so at odds; a relationship that deserves our most careful ministrations, and yet ultimately is free and independent no matter the attentions we invest. Humbling.

>18 AnishaInkspill: Love this. Thank you for posting it.