Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE STORY OF THE END OF THE STORY by JAMES GALVIN

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: TO KEEP FROM ENDING
Last Line: Only the stories about them do
Subject(s): SUICIDE;
To keep from ending
The story does everything it can,
Careful not to overvalue
Perfection or undervalue
Perfect chance,
As I am careful not to do in telling.
By now a lot has happened:
Bridges under the water,
No time outs,
Sinewy voices from under the earth
Braiding and going straight up
In a faint line.
I modify to simplify,
Complicate to clarify.
If you want to know your faults, marry.
If you want to know your virtues, die.
Then the heroine,
Who resembles you in certain particulars,
Precipitates the suicide
Of the author, wretchedly obscure,
Of that slim but turgid volume,
By letting slip:
@3Real events don't have endings,
Only the stories about them do@1.


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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