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A poem excerpted from Maurya Simon's new book <i>The Raindrop's Gospel</i> is today's entry on Verse Daily: <a href="http://www.versedaily.org/2010/beforeherdeath.shtml">http://www.versedaily.org/2010/beforeherdeath.shtml</a>.<div><br></div><div>Very nice, Maurya!</div><div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; "><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; "><b><i>D Charles Whitney, Professor and Chair</i></b></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; ">Department of Creative Writing, 4119 INTS</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; ">U of California, Riverside CA 92521</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px; ">951.827.6076 FAX 951.827.3619</span></font></div></span></i></b></span></font></div></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><div><br><img src="cid:97434C8D-EBDB-45D8-A40D-0A5C534E8FC5@ucr.edu"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">®</font></div><blockquote type="cite"><br><center><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times">Today's poem is by <a href="http://www.versedaily.org/2010/aboutmauryasimontrg.shtml">Maurya Simon</a></font></p></center><div> <br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><blockquote><p><b><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><font size="+1">Before Her Death</font></font></b><font size="-1"> <br>"So many of my songs are gone from me, <br>and even my very voice has left me now." — Virgil </font> <br> </p><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times"> Yearly, the slug crisscrosses his own tearstains,<br> the queen bee encrypts her hive with secret chambers,<br> the locust grafts his song upon fleeing shadows,<br> the worm weans herself on wolfbane, on stardust.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><p> I sit in the heat of my own discontent, where<br> only the gruff sound of his voice replenishes me.<br> It is never enough to love, simply to love.<br> Better to cleave to the silver blade, its quiver.</p><p> Better to gather a basket of roses and lilies,<br> ivory and purple, to fast with strangers,<br> to bask in the body's hungers as in sunlight.<br> I bear witness to myself with meditation;</p><p> as one substratum of my heart calcifies,<br> another layer pleasures itself with memory:<br> my touch a chink in his armor, his touch<br> frugal, but scalding, and his gaze plainsong.</p><p> I grow hoarse. My virgins pile a pyramid of<br> fruits before me, to tempt me again to break<br> my fasting. I will not. Faith is episodic<br> initially—but these long years it's yielded</p><p> to something else... something slowly fluid—<br> a liberation of the senses, an animal wisdom.<br> I watch my sparrow granddaughter polish the pyx,<br> the nape of her neck softened by cilia of down,</p><p> her open face so like my own a lifetime ago—<br> contemplative as well water, a rosy cameo.<br> Is she suited for a nun's habit? I think perhaps<br> her fingers are better fitted to a cithera's strings.</p><p> Yet I find such flexibility of thought in her,<br> and an undefiled purity that enthralls me.<br> Little Paula, come sit on my wrinkled knees—<br> teach me to be like an angel struck dumb—</p><p> <font size="-1">(Bethlehem, Summer 403)</font> </p><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div></font><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times"> </font><br><font size="-1"> </font></p><font size="-1"><p><br><font face="Times New Roman,Times">Copyright © 2009 Maurya Simon All rights reserved<br> from <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932418342?ie=UTF8&tag=versedaily-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=1932418342">The Raindrop's Gospel: The Trials of St. Jerome and St. Paula</a></i> <br><a href="http://www.elixirpress.com/">Elixir Press</a> <br><font face="Times New Roman,Times">Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission</font></font></p></font></blockquote><font size="-1"><font face="Times New Roman,Times"> <center><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><a href="http://www.versedaily.org/support.shtml">Support Verse Daily</a></font> <br><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><a href="http://www.versedaily.org/support.shtml">Sponsor Verse Daily!</a></font> </p><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><a href="http://www.versedaily.org/index.shtml">Home</a> <a href="http://www.versedaily.org/archives.shtml">Archives</a> <a href="http://www.versedaily.org/webmonthly.shtml">Web Monthly Features</a> <a href="http://www.versedaily.org/about.shtml">About Verse Daily</a> <a href="http://www.versedaily.org/faq.shtml">FAQs</a> <a href="http://www.versedaily.org/contact.shtml">Submit to Verse Daily</a> <a href="http://www.versedaily.org/received.shtml">Publications Noted & Received</a> </font></p><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times">Copyright © 2002-2010 Verse Daily All Rights Reserved</font></p></font></center><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><p><br></p><p><br></p></font><p><font face="Times New Roman,Times"><br></font> </p></font></font></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>