18 January 2008

Jean Valentine

[from Jean Valentine's Little Boat, 2007]

The Harrowing

The worn hands
spines         feet
                                 Even he
whose blank hand I held on to
for dear life
                                 phantom limb


On your sidewalk
walking past your café

the piano was being tuned, hard,
trying it, one note at a time

trying, walking outside of time
— was that the night —          & space


Blessed are those
who break off from separateness

theirs is wild
heaven.

Little Boat (Wesleyan Poetry)

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