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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PRACTICE, by JAMES GALVIN Poem Explanation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The world arrived / so carefully packed Last Line: With speech Subject(s): Bible; Speech; Oratory; Orators | |||
The world arrived so carefully packed in time, in time to open, it could have been God's parachute. We booby-trapped it. God, you will remember from the Old Testament, was a terrorist. Now He's a generalization. We've taken to scaring ourselves. We scare the ozone layer. But today, still spinning around the world's axis, which is imaginary, I was permitted to walk home again through writhing spring. Leafy things and flowers in earnest everywhere, ignoring fear. If it was anything it was a garden. Then, by the gymnasium I saw a girl in a green leotard with long sleeves. She wasn't just any girl, she was a dancer, which is to say only she didn't regret her body. She moved in it and it moved. She spun herself around. She wasn't dancing, exactly, more like she was practicing a dance, getting the moves right, which moved me even more. Sure I wanted her, but I stood quietly as she practiced dancing alone, without music, and then I continued on. It wouldn't have been a good thing to interrupt that solitude, identical with her body, or risk frightening her with speech. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION by ANSELM HOLLO THE ORATION; AFTER CAVAFY by CAROLYN KIZER A VOICE FROM THE SWEAT-SHOPS (A HYMN WITH RESPONSES) by LOUIS UNTERMEYER A SIMPLIFICATION by RICHARD WILBUR MOTHER TONGUE by RANDY BLASING THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#13): 1. ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND THUNDER by MARVIN BELL THE BOOK OF THE DEAD MAN (#13): 2. MORE ABOUT THE DEAD MAN AND THUNDER by MARVIN BELL SATIRE: 1 by AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS THWARTED UTTERANCE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET A DISCRETE LOVE POEM by JAMES GALVIN |
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