“This is what I am: watching the spider
rebuild - "patiently", they say,
but I recognise in her
impatience - my own-
the passion to make and make again
where such unmaking reigns
the refusal to be a victim
we have lived with violence so long
Am I to go on saying
for myself, for her
This is my body,
take it and destroy it?”
― The Dream of a Common Language
rebuild - "patiently", they say,
but I recognise in her
impatience - my own-
the passion to make and make again
where such unmaking reigns
the refusal to be a victim
we have lived with violence so long
Am I to go on saying
for myself, for her
This is my body,
take it and destroy it?”
― The Dream of a Common Language
“My heart is moved by all I cannot save: so much has been destroyed I have to cast my lot with those who age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.”
― The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977
― The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977
“Silence can be a plan
rigorously executed
the blueprint to a life
It is a presence
it has a history a form
Do not confuse it
with any kind of absence”
― The Dream of a Common Language
rigorously executed
the blueprint to a life
It is a presence
it has a history a form
Do not confuse it
with any kind of absence”
― The Dream of a Common Language
“You’ve kissed my hair
to wake me. I dreamed you were a poem,
I say, a poem I wanted to show someone…
and I laugh and fall dreaming again
of the desire to show you to everyone I love,
to move openly together
in the pull of gravity”
― The Dream of a Common Language
to wake me. I dreamed you were a poem,
I say, a poem I wanted to show someone…
and I laugh and fall dreaming again
of the desire to show you to everyone I love,
to move openly together
in the pull of gravity”
― The Dream of a Common Language
“but from here on
I want more crazy mourning, more howl, more keening
-from "A Woman Dead in Her Forties”
― The Dream of a Common Language
I want more crazy mourning, more howl, more keening
-from "A Woman Dead in Her Forties”
― The Dream of a Common Language
Jackie’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Jackie’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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