[New-Poetry] love poems continued

[Chris Stroffolino]

I like it, and all that, but I'm curious what women think about it...
It seems more of a 'muse' poem than a love poem
(and, I know, I know, in saying that, I'm probably even lumping the  
poems I consider my best love poems in that category as well...)

and by saying this I don't mean to criticize it, I mostly have a hard  
time being convinced by a poem that is purported to be a love poem
(more so than a love song, or love story even)....
and I'm trying to figure out if it's because of poetic self- 
consciousness (not just a post-modern thing,
but the "dissociation of sensibility" after John Donne and all that),
or a particular puritan strain, etc.
I could mention some mid-late 20th century (contemporary) ones that  
might come closer to me,
but I'm curious about this resistance that has mostly consigned the  
"love poem" to the song form...

C

On Feb 13, 2008, at 4:04 PM, jforjames at aol.com wrote:

> Set Her Far From Me, Mirror
>
>
> Set her far from me, mirror.
> Reverse her size.
> She who fills the world,
> make her little, make her almost nothing.
> Let her fit into monosyllables
> and any eyes at all.
> So that you can hold
> her enormity,
> a gazelle, tame,
> like a child, in your frame.
> Take from her that rejoicing
> in fire and fullness,
> until the finest scales
> can’t even feel her.
> Leave her cold, flat,
> buried in your quicksilver.
> Turn
> her eyes away.
> Don’t let her see me, let her
> think she’s alone. So that I
> can learn at last what she’s like
> when she’s alone.
> Give me something of her
> that she herself never gave me.
>
> Even so, even
> in the revelation of her,
> even so you take her from me.
>
> --Pedro Salinas
> Translated by W.S. Merwin
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