Noman’s Land Common A shadow passes over the meadow, effortless in its cooling presence, a wake of songbirds, for a moment stilled, for a moment passed over by a presence like night, a shoal of fish beneath the barnacled hull, tender in covering, blanket-soft, the lids pulled over our welling eyes, to shed a drop …
Donald Hall’s keen observations on grief in Without had a profound impact on my understanding of the possibilities of elegiac poems. Since relocating to London, Douglas Dunn’s slim volume Elegies has deepened my understanding of the form, and some of its specific cultural implications. Both collections were written in the wake of the poet’s wife’s …
“No motion has she now, no force; / She neither hears nor sees; / Roll’d round in earth’s diurnal course, / With rocks, and stones, and trees.” -William Wordsworth, “Lucy” Yesterday marked the anniversary of the birth and death of a poet-friend’s son. Today we finished packing baby items originally bought for our own son, …
