( via / via )

Running to the Sea. (via)

"Sylvia,
you fine-grained piece of white bread,
you piece of lace in an attic dress,
you crystal glass in a beanery,
you satin slippers worn to hike through a muddy wood,
you deserved so much,
and got so little,
or were so mistakenly used,
as many of us are.
But in a classic manner
you died in order not to perpetuate
this commonness.
So this is my day to affirm my survival
and my commonness.
I am thick Polish rye bread,
I am homespun muslin,
I am stoneware,
I am a pair of wellingtons,
I can/I will survive
whether the man I love, who makes me calm on a windy day,
goes away or not."

--Diane Wakoski, from Greed 9).

Unstable square.

"liking the risk of choosing balance in Wakoski's to Sylvia, Greed 9
faces like strange moons, Vermeers, pearls on the museum wall's forehead..."

--Gerald Burns, Shorter Poems

"If a refrain enters the poem I may wonder if the poem wants to be a villanelle (although those tend to be more fun to write than to read) or a triolet (a more explosive form)."