Curled up in bed,
I’m young
in the old way.
•
One
continuous stroke
without lifting
the pen
as if
“stem, tendril,
stem tendril”
were the words
of a commandment.
•
My next
elliptical loops
read “Praise.”
Word
deciphered
at a snail’s
pace.
Source: Poetry (March 2013).
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This poem originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of Poetry magazine
Rae Armantrout, one of the founding members of the West Coast group of Language poets, stands apart from other Language poets in her lyrical voice and her commitment to the interior and the domestic. Her short-lined poems are often concerned with dismantling conventions of memory, pop culture, science, and mothering, and these unsparing interrogations are often streaked with wit. “You can hold the various elements of my poems in . . .
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