Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DEAR ELIZABETH: (FOR ELIZABETH DIFIORE), by KAREN SWENSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DEAR ELIZABETH: (FOR ELIZABETH DIFIORE), by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We are almost all homely
Last Line: Told by a wanderer totally blind.
Subject(s): Beauty; Women


We are almost all homely,
beauty being rare as a round stone,
and I was once homelier than thou,
pocked teeth, long nose, plain geometry jaw,
an unleavened matzo angling down the street,
pigeon-toed strip of bespectacled lath.
The swan's story is a sweet one,
but it is a puffball beast.
Robins, April-pretty, live on worms
to become unnoticeable by June.
But the hatched hawk, gall-eyed
in clumsy fluff between feet and beak,
lives on fought flesh - waiting
for shoulders to lean upon the wind.
I tell you this to keep comfort till your time.
A man is held stronger by beauty he knows
than any loveliness his eye can see.
And don't mind Helen with Grecian ships,
that is the male's most fervent legend,
told by a wanderer totally blind.





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