Poetry Magazine
Kind of Blue
Not Delft or
delphinium, not Wedgewood
among the knickknacks, not wide-eyed chicory
evangelizing in the devil strip—
But way on down in the moonless
octave below midnight, honey,
way down where you can't tell cerulean
from teal.
Not Mason jars of moonshine, not
waverings of silk, not the long-legged hunger
of a heron or the peacock's
iridescent id—
But Delilahs of darkness, darling,
and the muscle of the mind
giving in.
Not sullen snow slumped
against the garden, not the first instinct of flame,
not small, stoic ponds, or the cold derangement
of a jealous sea—
But bluer than the lips of Lazarus, baby,
before Sweet Jesus himself could figure out
what else in the world to do but weep.
Source: Poetry (May 2004).
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This poem originally appeared in the May 2004 issue of Poetry magazine
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Biography
Lynn Powell's second book of poems, The Zones of Paradise, is just out from the University of Akron Press. Her first book, Old and New Testaments, won the 1995 Brittingham Prize and was published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
Poem Categorization
SUBJECT Music, Arts & Sciences, Social Commentaries, Popular Culture
Poetic Terms Alliteration, Allusion, Elegy
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