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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


CONTRA MORTEM: THE WOMAN'S GENITALS by HAYDEN CARRUTH

Poet Analysis

First Line: OH THIS WORLD AND OH THIS DEAR WORLDBODY
Last Line: AND HOW IT IS HERE AND IT WAS ALWAYS HERE
Subject(s): REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM; SEX; SEX ORGANS; GENITALIA;

Oh this world and oh this dear worldbody
see how it has become become become
how it has flowered and how it has put on gaudy
appearances how it is a plum
in its ripening a rose in its reddening a berry
in its glittering a finch in its throbbing a cowry
in its extraordinary allusiveness a night
of midsummer in its fragrance a tide
in its deepsurging and a dark woodland spring
in its concealing sources
see how it is velvety how its innerness clings
and presses how nearly it repulses
how it then takes and cherishes how it is austere
how it is free how it reviles abuses
and how it is here and how it was always here.


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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