The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Mon 5/15/06)

[RetroLounge]

Anatomy of Failure

Shadows passed over the statues in the night —
crossed them, hesitated, vanished;
even the dust was white as a bird.

Someone had loved me, had
stopped loving me. I had
failed in a minute but final way;

all the words exchanged
risen past the boundaries
of what had been made

and what wasn't yet outlined, risen
like a parrot toward a sky
only to find a painted ceiling and a stenciled sun.

I lived in a museum, slept
up against a body of stone,
spine to block-grey base

as a stranger's face looked
down upon me,
a bird in someone else's mind.


Meghan O'Rourke

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Meghan O'Rourke is the culture editor of Slate and a poetry editor of The Paris Review. She is the recipient of the 2005 Union League and Civic Arts Foundation Prize for poetry, awarded by Poetry magazine.

********************

RL

If you have a request for a certain Poet, post their name in the thread and I will find a poem by them and post it...

if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[lizziegrace]

1. ...

Ouch. :hug:

[miss_american_pie]

2. Ouch

I lived in a museum, slept
up against a body of stone,

[lizziegrace]

3. and

Someone had loved me, had
stopped loving me. I had
failed in a minute but final way;

[miss_american_pie]

4. Oh yeah

:hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. My dear RetroLounge!

This stanza has special poignancy for me.....it echoes what once was said to me......

This is such a sad poem, so beautiful too.....for a Blue Monday, perhaps?


as a stranger's face looked
down upon me,
a bird in someone else's mind.

:hug:

[RetroLounge]

:hug:

Monday, yes, blue, no...

RL