larryhammer: topless woman lying prone with a poem by Sappho painted on her back, label: "Greek poetry is sexy" (poetry)
[personal profile] larryhammer
Time again for a Poetry Monday:


Confiteor: A Country Song, Patricia Monaghan

Evening. Red sky. Standing at the door
I sense a shadow presence here:
the one who loved this land before.

These harmless hills bear scars of war.
Someone stood here, full of fear.
This is not a metaphor.

Above me, turkey vultures soar;
below the garden, seven deer.
Someone loved this land before,

loved it as I do, maybe more.
She did not simply disappear
and she is not a metaphor:

This was some woman’s home before
pale soldiers came to clear
a land that someone loved before.

What to do with facts like this? Ignore
them? Hope they disappear?
Someone loved this land before.
None of this is metaphor.


---L.

Subject quote from "Ode on Melancholy," John Keats.

Date: 1 May 2017 07:12 pm (UTC)
shewhomust: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shewhomust
I like this - I hadn't come across Patricia Monaghan before.

Date: 10 May 2017 07:16 pm (UTC)
klwilliams: (Default)
From: [personal profile] klwilliams
Oh, I like this. Plus I always admire a well-done villanelle. They're hard to write, and often hard to read.

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