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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


IVY-GROWTH by LORETTA COWARD

First Line: IVY GROWS ARTFULLY TO THE SUN
Last Line: AND CANCEROUS DEATH OF TREES.
Subject(s): IVY;

Ivy grows artfully to the sun
with crafty lies,
gnaws characters of stone,
bends stoic trees.

No breath along the ground,
no half-light through the sieve
of smothering alien leaves
will satisfy; it gains

by sinuous slow murder
in attenuated shock
of aggravating tentacles
which lacerate live rock.

Malignant forest-fungus
dyed autumn-red with blood
where constricting serpentine
arms embrace the wood,

this socially accepted vine
by cruel diplomacies
absorbs its life from wounded stone
and cancerous death of trees.



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