Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FOUNDERED STAR, by JANE MILLER Poet's Biography First Line: Little fevered island, blued to closing Last Line: About ourselves that aren't true. Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Social Problems; Writing & Writers | ||||||||
Little fevered island, blued to closing, boatmen, tidemen, shademen, men of color and of peace; women of the cabbage, women of the carrot-house, women of the swim; children squealing and picnicking, doe-eyed and able-bodied, children of clashing cymbals and chalky dreams, of milk-lips, of bugs under glass; come now to the tips of the roofs, come now to the lake lip, to the entryway of the tunnels, to the counting-house; air the eiderdown, steam the rooms of the lovers, break the fistfights from their arguments, marry the maid - live a little in the afternoon, asking, - now what do I do? because this is the way we are alive, though we force ourselves out of a certain nostalgia, where we first made love the condition of our lives - a dark room there, but only because the shades were drawn, it was really midday!, and our clothes stuck to our bodies like hairy beasts! - we watched the light change in our eyes, as we dug deeper, pulling out embers - remember? But the word itself is no longer magical, the word no longer a living thing...a weakness in one of two breakers. Yet there remains an image, when you water the sun and moon, mouths coupling and uncoupling, kissing along the ridge the poet invented, coincident, temporal, carnal, all so that others might be entertained, changed a nick or two like a diamond. Who can say whether better or worse, but this much I can say, I who am always writing to you, my earthship, my next life - though no one is now listening or talking (it's all the same) though no one is now laboring or sleeping (it's forbidden) no one yet exploded, the globe forgives the night sky gone yellow, the morning sea gone white and all for a little greed, a little light on the wall, a view of the other side - oar dipped in ink! - where we shall never again believe things about ourselves that aren't true. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE CELL, SELECTION by LYN HEJINIAN OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 126: THE DOUBTING MAN by LYN HEJINIAN WAKING THE MORNING DREAMLESS AFTER LONG SLEEP by JANE HIRSHFIELD COMPULSIVE QUALIFICATIONS by RICHARD HOWARD DEUTSCH DURCH FREUD by RANDALL JARRELL LET THEM ALONE by ROBINSON JEFFERS ON BUILDING WITH STONE by ROBINSON JEFFERS A WINTER OF LOVE LETTERS AND A MORNING PRAYER: 5 by JANE MILLER A WINTER OF LOVE LETTERS AND A MORNING PRAYER: 7 by JANE MILLER |
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