This selection is not my usual random pick from the book shelf.
I chose The Essential Anne Wilkinson selected by Ingrid Ruthig, Editor, after hearing Ingrid read at the inaugural ‘Writers In My Residence’ Salon hosted by Carin Makuz.
The Essential Poets Series presents the works of Canada’s most celebrated poets, published by The Porcupines Quill, “… an artisanal publisher that values the art and craft of the book, both in content and in form”.
This is the eleventh volume in the series.
Although the choice of book wasn’t random this time, the poem is. I flipped this handsome book open to page 50 and here is what I discovered …
UNTITLED
High as fear
The tightrope,
Thin as silk the string
My feet are walking walking
Since my mother cried
And the doctor cut the cord
And stranded me here.
Numberless as clowns
Are my beginnings —
Teeter, crazily totter,
Windmills for arms;
The long street breathless
And I more breathless than windows,
Waiting.
But I am two times born
And when a new moon cuts the night
Or full moons froth with my
And witches’ milk
I walk the tightrope
Free and easy as an angel,
Toes as certain of their line of silk
As the sturdy ones
Whose feet are curled with earth.
4 comments
8 December 2014 at 1:06 pm
Anonymous
Thanks, Cheryl, for that fabulous selection and poem! Diana
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10 December 2014 at 12:28 pm
Cheryl
You are welcome, Diana!
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7 December 2014 at 3:21 pm
Lucid Gypsy
I wish I understood the poem.
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10 December 2014 at 12:22 pm
Cheryl
I hope to gain new insights into the meaning of Anne Wilkinson’s poem with each successive reading, Gilly … IF all is right in my poetry world. About understanding it, I like what Keats has to say … “touches of beauty should never be halfway thereby making the reader breathless instead of content … “
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