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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


KNIFE OF NOSTALGIA by AVANELLE WILMETH BLAIR

First Line: I WISH THAT I HAD BEEN AWAKE LAST NIGHT
Last Line: AND SILENCE, AS OF SLEEPING YEARS, STILLED MY TONGUE.
Subject(s): SENSIBILITY;

I wish that I had been awake last night
When that little wind wandered to my window;
But I was drowsy and it went with the light
Of dawn, brushing the wet wisteria below.

I am sure now that it came up from home ...
Perhaps across her grave, in that tangle-garden's
River-chill. It seemed that something of south-loam
Was left to my nostrils; and that old grief that hardens

Like hail in the heart was with me, again;
The gray memory of our old meadow-fence flung
A thin knife of nostalgia at my brain,
And silence, as of sleeping years, stilled my tongue.



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