|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PLAYING JACKS IN BHAKTAPUR, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography First Line: On a cruciform cloth squared in black and white Last Line: She names. Subject(s): Games; Travel; Recreation; Pastimes; Amusements; Journeys; Trips | |||
On a cruciform cloth squared in black and white two old men are playing, with ivory and ebony pieces, worn as the dust-caulked stones they squat on, a game. I do not understand game, rules, or anything else here. On the other side of the temple square a Garuda folds gilded wings at the top of a pillar in this town whose syllables are so strange I keep relocating them in the guide book as though their sounds could say the place I am. Turning from the play of old men I watch a girl squat before a rough circle of pebbles with open palm toss one to the air, gather in its fall three from the dust and capture the fourth's plummet in her cupped hand. By the catch of childhood she names. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RICHARD, WHAT'S THAT NOISE? by RICHARD HOWARD LOOKING FOR THE GULF MOTEL by RICHARD BLANCO RIVERS INTO SEAS by LYNDA HULL DESTINATIONS by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE ONE WHO WAS DIFFERENT by RANDALL JARRELL THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON SESTINA: TRAVEL NOTES by WELDON KEES TO H. B. (WITH A BOOK OF VERSE) by MAURICE BARING |
| |