Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SARA, by JAMES GALVIN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SARA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sara stays at home. / her looks are plain
Last Line: A white cloth against the glass
Subject(s): Beauty; Grief; Insanity; Paintings & Painters; Suicide; Voices; Sorrow; Sadness; Madness; Mental Illness


Sara stays at home.
Her looks are plain.
She paints somber landscapes with sleeping horses.
She hears voices.

She's going to stop living later this afternoon.

Now she's painting the uncut hay waiting in the meadow,
that her father and brothers used to mow
when they were alive.

Sara knows from observation
how it is with trees -- without a forest
they can't go on.
Her mother tells Sara not to paint so sad.

Look, she says, standing at the bay window,
cleaning the glass with a white cloth,

It's beautiful, not sad!
The walls of the house are covered with Sara's landscapes.
It's like not having any walls.

The sun is hot on the brim of her straw hat,
and the valley can't imagine itself
without her.
She paints the hay barn, leaning a little,

the snowfence, also leaning,
the pines behind the house and barn
a sadder green than pine trees are.

The house, from the outside, is plain.
Sara paints her mother standing at the window,

a white cloth against the glass.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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