[CW-Grad] Fwd: Emailing: Verse Daily Before Her Death by Maurya Simon

[D Charles Whitney]

A poem excerpted from Maurya Simon's new book The Raindrop's Gospel  
is today's entry on Verse Daily:  http://www.versedaily.org/2010/ 
beforeherdeath.shtml.

Very nice, Maurya!

D Charles Whitney, Professor and Chair
Department of Creative Writing, 4119 INTS
U of California, Riverside CA 92521
951.827.6076    FAX 951.827.3619





®
>
> Today's poem is by Maurya Simon
>
>
> Before Her Death
> "So many of my songs are gone from me,
> and even my very voice has left me now." — Virgil
> Yearly, the slug crisscrosses his own tearstains,
> the queen bee encrypts her hive with secret chambers,
> the locust grafts his song upon fleeing shadows,
> the worm weans herself on wolfbane, on stardust.
>
> I sit in the heat of my own discontent, where
> only the gruff sound of his voice replenishes me.
> It is never enough to love, simply to love.
> Better to cleave to the silver blade, its quiver.
>
> Better to gather a basket of roses and lilies,
> ivory and purple, to fast with strangers,
> to bask in the body's hungers as in sunlight.
> I bear witness to myself with meditation;
>
> as one substratum of my heart calcifies,
> another layer pleasures itself with memory:
> my touch a chink in his armor, his touch
> frugal, but scalding, and his gaze plainsong.
>
> I grow hoarse. My virgins pile a pyramid of
> fruits before me, to tempt me again to break
> my fasting. I will not. Faith is episodic
> initially—but these long years it's yielded
>
> to something else... something slowly fluid—
> a liberation of the senses, an animal wisdom.
> I watch my sparrow granddaughter polish the pyx,
> the nape of her neck softened by cilia of down,
>
> her open face so like my own a lifetime ago—
> contemplative as well water, a rosy cameo.
> Is she suited for a nun's habit? I think perhaps
> her fingers are better fitted to a cithera's strings.
>
> Yet I find such flexibility of thought in her,
> and an undefiled purity that enthralls me.
> Little Paula, come sit on my wrinkled knees—
> teach me to be like an angel struck dumb—
>
> (Bethlehem, Summer 403)
>
>
>
>
>
> Copyright © 2009 Maurya Simon All rights reserved
> from The Raindrop's Gospel: The Trials of St. Jerome and St. Paula
> Elixir Press
> Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission
>
> Support Verse Daily
> Sponsor Verse Daily!
>
> Home    Archives   Web Monthly Features    About Verse Daily    
> FAQs  Submit to Verse Daily   Publications Noted & Received
>
> Copyright © 2002-2010 Verse Daily All Rights Reserved
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/cwgrad-announcements/attachments/20100120/a1c96594/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: versedailylogo.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 8371 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.ucr.edu/pipermail/cwgrad-announcements/attachments/20100120/a1c96594/attachment.jpg