Thursday, April 8, 2010

a double dose of emily

emily town
by anne carson (one of my favourite poets. ever.)

"Riches in a little room."
Is a phrase that haunts.
Her since the voltage of you.
Left.
Snow or a library.
Or a band of angels.
With a message is.
Not what.
It meant to.
Her.
and my choice of companion poem, by emily dickinson.

I died for beauty, but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
"for beauty," I replied.
"And I for truth,--the two are one;
We brethren are," he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.

Carson, Anne. "Emily Town" The Best American Poetry 1990. Don Mills: Collier Macmillan Canada, Inc., 1990.
Dickinson, Emily. "I died for beauty" Emily Dickinson: Collected Poems. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1993.