Enlighten Radio Presents
The Blank Page Confronts You: Ars Poetica
Poems About Poetry.
Janet selects a classic and new efforts. Why to people write poems about poetry. As Janet (and Billy Collins) explain -- its the problem of the Blank Page -- tune in for more!
Broadcast LIVE Wednesdays, 10 AM on https://player.enlightenradio.org
Hosts: Janet Harrison, John Case
This Episode Recorded 11/22/2023
Essay on Craft
by OCEAN VUONG
Because the butterfly's yellow wing
flickering in black mud
was a word
stranded by its language.
Because no one else
was coming I ran
out of reasons.
So I gathered fistfuls
of ash, dark as ink,
hammered them
into marrow, into
a skull thick
enough to keep
the gentle curse
of dreams. Yes, I aimed
for mercy
but came only close
as building a cage
around the heart. Shutters
over the eyes. Yes,
I gave it hands
despite knowing
that to stretch that clay slab
into five blades of light,
I would go
too far. Because I, too,
needed a place
to hold me. So I dipped
my fingers back
into the fire, pried open
the lower face
until the wound widened
into a throat,
until every leaf shook silver
with that god
-awful scream
& I was done.
& it was human.
Source: Poetry (July/August 2017)
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