Gift poem – Alice Notley – The Poetry Monster

Nothing will hurt you that much despite how you feel

the stress on your back shapes your insight

this splendid November rain Toussaint. I find

you by your marks, he says

an imprint

But when I summon you, I talk to—I say—

my memory of your face. It’s kind of crazy

to others. They’re not very interesting he says.

When I first came to this country, and now

I know the language I say, but I had in a dream

spoken it many years previously. That is,

not the language of the dead the language

of France. I took one year of French in 1964

and then nothing but once, in 1977 I spoke French

in a dream all night: I was in the future I

moved here in 1992. Country of the more

logical than I? though the people of my quartier

know and like me, even as I a foreigner remain strange

You do everything alone a woman said to me.

There are ways to care without interfering

but the French speak of anguish frequently

they are conscious of emotional extremity

a terrible gift. It’s all a gift, he says . . .

some haven’t been opened. I’m not sure

he said that it’s nearly my sixty-seventh birthday

today though it’s the day of the dead hello

we love you they say.

Copyright ©:
Alice Notley

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Poems in English

On Hermocratia (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Flaxman’s Penelope by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Flatteries (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Female Inconstancy (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Envy (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On Delia (Bid Adieu, My Sad Heart) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Ugly Fellow (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Old Woman (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On An Infant (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A True Friend (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Thief (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Spaniel, Called Beau, Killing A Young Bird by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Similar Character (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Plant Of Virgin’s-Bower, Designed To Cover A Garden-seat by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Mistake In His Translation Of Homer by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser, 3 (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Miser, 2 (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Mischievous Bull, Which The Owner Him Sold At The Author’s Instance by William Cowper by William Cowper
On A Good Man (From The Greek) by William Cowper by William Cowper

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