May 21, 2013
Rae Armantrout
continued
There are moments in Versed of surprising clarity. The poem "Around" begins, typically for Armantrout, with a larger philosophical moment--"Time is pleased/to draw itself/out . . ." But the second section of the poem is almost frighteningly direct:
Chuck and I are pleasedThe third section of the poem first quotes what might be the language of commerce or advertising, but then contrasts it with the perception of the desperately ill speaker:
to have found a spot
where my ashes can be scattered.
It looks like a construction site
now
but it's adjacent
to a breathtaking, rocky coast.
"The future
is all around us."
It's a place,
anyplace
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