Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


SAVING JUST THE REAL by CLARENCE MAJOR

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHEN I WAS BORN I SAW

When I was born I saw
death devour the birth
of something, perhaps
the first thing so deep
now it's hard to say,
fruit perhaps, peaches
on my mother's table.
Then the particular way
chickens stood
on one leg. Death
in sparrows. I remember
their closed eyes,
the hardness
of the body of death.


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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