Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GREEN OF MILDEW AND OF VERDIGRIS by JANE MILLER

First Line: PHOSPHOR OF NIGHT-CLOUD, OLD SALT FREIGHTER
Last Line: VERY MOUTH, VERY WINDOW, VERY SKY
Subject(s): DISCONTENT; DREAMS; LOVE; DISSATISFACTION; NIGHTMARES;

Phosphor of night-cloud, old salt freighter
sailing between sleep and wake

what was it
you said we couldn't be
eternal about

Summer leaves
hitting the window
undulations with gold-dust and brick-dust

yellow of field and fence
days of October lily
nights of algae and thrush

How animal
human eyes are
putting the ceremony back
where it belongs

Love is the best of the legend
part of a dream we live
beard-of-a-bald-man night
heavy with particulars

and russet days
whose every minute is the same
small explosions like good-bye
so that you will know me

Daily we bury the body
whose heart hasn't felt
each boat depart for nothing
sails of metal and file

On a sea of hinges
we stop our grief in the middle
to work, what we are here for

very mouth, very window, very sky



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