Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NEEDLE THREADER IN NEED OF A NEEDLE, by DARA WIER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NEEDLE THREADER IN NEED OF A NEEDLE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tincture of morphine, tincture of so-forth blue hazarding
Last Line: To wear, nearby a llama stepping into its pajamas
Subject(s): Drugs & Drug Abuse


High standard cursive, careful, no
inappropriate wavering.
Scale, measure, formal requirements,
and intimations.
Each word has a soul, and this ink
is that famous temple in which the soul
endures -- no, swells out to fill each figure's thought
the temple delineates -- no, bloats up like the
also famous proud sails so that each word
demands a surface, yes, smooth as silk over a soul,
as any holy body of water before it's struck
by a breeze or from below by a current come from
around the world or the moon or a catfish's tail.
Each stroke so purely still, moving nonetheless,
so it appears it is the whole word which moves,
and each word solemnly goes on its progress
toward the next word. Maybe not; one suspects
a handwriting such as this does not want to put two
and two together, maybe not two words together
unless it thinks it should see to it that each
word is discretely "beautiful" in fact,
so beautiful one understands were it not for
her handwriting maintaining its poise the horror
would be too much to bear; the cruelty begins
to appear as the end of the session draws near.
One sees through every vowel as through an endless
tunnel after which nothing appears, through
the tall, lithe letter a ferocity of arcs and cuts,
vast wounds sutured with a thousand stitches,
and a few stitches so proudly set they seem to be slashes,
disastrously understood to direct their attention
straight to the infliction of infinite pain,
great pains, oh, such great pains have been
gone through for her handwriting to be so beautiful.








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