Long Ignored Marks in her Poems
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The love-vased Emily put dashes in
The gnomes she gave as poetry. She packed
Them full of other blooms and roots, like sin
For instance, with Eternity intact.
These other blossoms and their stalks were not
Just words. She put in upward swinging sweeps
Like tilts. Her verses on slight scraps were fraught
With downward swinging marks. The strokes meant deeps
And heights of voice and of thought. A third,
Parentheses like bowls in curves, laid down
To cup infinity, directed word
And phrase to act as a conductor’s crown
That sweeps a gesture to the heavens, moves
The voice to things divinity approves.