[New-Poetry] Alexander on today's Almanac

[Anny Ballardini]

 Ars Poetica #100: I Believe

by Elizabeth Alexander<http://www.elabs7.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=fj6,diu6,dv,eaq2,5ek3,3hrs,fxvj>

Poetry, I tell my students,
is idiosyncratic. Poetry
is where we are ourselves,
(though Sterling Brown said
"Every 'I' is a dramatic 'I'")
digging in the clam flats
for the shell that snaps,
emptying the proverbial pocketbook.
Poetry is what you find
in the dirt in the corner,
overhear on the bus, God
in the details, the only way
to get from here to there.
Poetry (and now my voice is rising)
is not all love, love, love
and I'm sorry the dog died.
Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,
and are we not of interest to each other?

"Ars Poetica #100: I Believe" by Elizabeth Alexander, from *American Sublime
*. (c) Graywolf Press, 2005. Reprinted with permission. (buy
now<http://www.elabs7.com/c.html?rtr=on&s=fj6,diu6,dv,k6ey,oid,3hrs,fxvj>)




-- 
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing
star!
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