Readings in Contemporary Poetry

Pinsky Reading


IF YOU COULD WRITE ONE GREAT POEM, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT IT TO BE ABOUT?


(Asked of four student poets at the Illinois
Schools for the Deaf and Visually Impaired)	

Fire: because it is quick, and can destroy.

Music: place where anger has its place.

Romantic Love—the cold or stupid ask why.

Sign: that it is a language, full of grace,


That it is visible, invisible, dark and clear,

That it is loud and noiseless and is contained 

Inside a body and explodes in air

Out of a body to conquer from the mind.


from THE FIGURED WHEEL, NEW & COLLECTED POEMS, 1966-1996,
(Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996)



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