ANOTHER
Brittle
ovals,
pinkish
gray
and
thin,
hang
in
shoals,
treading
currents.
*
Eucalyptus,
let
us in.
PARTING SHOTS
1
Long,
confident sentences
of
the early visitors,
so
unlike ours,
so
much like one another,
remark
on
the sculpted “grandeur”
of
the walls,
and
then, with one light touch,
on
the bracing sense
of
insignificance
that
they impart.
2
Behind
the only wall in sight,
the
defamiliarized wall,
a
sniper
tells
a camera crew
his
work is “invigorating”
because
it’s “personal.”
EXIT ROW
You
will buy your life
as
a series
of
“experiences”
to
which you
will
belong.
Have
a good flight.
*
Do
you believe
in
reproduction?
Do
you think this
upland
of clouds,
white
buttes cut
by
shadow canyons,
shapely
and boundless
as
the body
you
were promised,
will
reappear
after
you’re gone?
*
Boarding
all zones at this time
FORMAL
CONSTRAINTS
Now
the poem
is
saying
what
it is forced to say
by
its history, its form
thus
pleasing the reader
who
knows he can trust it
without
being obliged
to
regard
any
statements it may make
as
accurate
or
“true.”
The
poem is ridding itself
and
us
of
the burden
of
abstraction –
a
valuable service.
Still
a
question arises
as
to how
to
dispose of the poem
once
this divestment
is
complete.
[note. The poems above follow the recent publication by Wesleyan University Press of Armantrout’s Money Shot & carry forward the extreme grace & intelligence of her previous writings. An earlier collection, Versed (2009), received both a Pulitzer Prize & a National Book Critics Circle Award, while her connection to the most innovative side of American & world poetry remains as strong as ever. Previous postings on Poems & Poetics can be found here & here. (J.R.)]
1 comment:
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Book Review Blog:
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Personal/ Poetry Blog:
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Fond Regards,
Anna
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