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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CARTOGRAPHY, by JAMES GALVIN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Out on the border a howl goes up, skinning the cold air Last Line: It's real, it doesn't exist, it's on all the black maps Subject(s): Boundaries; Maps; Wings; Borders | |||
Out on the border a howl goes up, skinning the cold air. A windrush as if from enormous wings descending Slicks the grass down and thumps, and the whole sky bruises. Out on the border it stops just as suddenly As if there were some mistake, and there is: mortal beauty This world can't bear, and a skeletal silence Administrates the clouds, their passages, their dissolutions in light. Out on the border right and wrong are more distinct, But the border itself is suggestive, permissive, a thinly dotted line. Amassed armies of forests and grasses poise, Encroach, but never cross. Even the sky stays on one side. Another howl goes up, not a threat as was thought, But an invitation to an interior. The border Halves a piece of paper into here and hereafter. A man, himself a fascicle of borders, draws a map and can't stop drawing For fear of bleeding, smudging, disappearance. When the map is complete the page will be completely Obscured by detail, then a third howl. Three things about the border are known: It's real, it doesn't exist, it's on all the black maps. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BORDER by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. THE THRESHOLD by GLADYS CROMWELL THE RESCUE ON THE MEXICAN BORDER by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR A DISCRETE LOVE POEM by JAMES GALVIN A MAN'S VOCATION IS NOBODY'S BUSINESS by JAMES GALVIN A POEM FROM BOULDER RIDGE by JAMES GALVIN A POEM FROM THE EDGE OF AMERICA by JAMES GALVIN |
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