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SONNET: 2, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: How is it, tell me, that this new self can be
Last Line: The I of love that you in love bestow?
Variant Title(s): "how Is It, Tell Me, That This New Self Can Be-"";
Subject(s): Women


How is it, tell me, that this new self can be --
and so quickly? God knows, none is the lord
of his own face or ever was. So what accord
of rearranging nuclei changes me
into this alien now so familiarly
staring from the bathroom mirror? What word
reforms my mind and all its wretched hoard
of worn-out feelings suddenly fresh and free?
Woman, I'm not sure of much. Are you?
More and more I believe the age demands
incertitude. I am no one. Yet your hands,
touching, word-like, can make a person. Who
is the strange new myself? Woman, do we know
the I of love that you in love bestow?


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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