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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


FOUR MATRICES: 1. HOME by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: NEW MATRICES, ALL ICE. FIXED HERE AND SOLIDLY
Last Line: TO SLEEP AGAIN, NEW AND BITTER EACH NEW TIME.
Subject(s): INCONSISTENCY;

New Matrices, all ice. Fixed here and solidly.
What was that song? My grave is hiding from me.
I'll go to that juniper thicket across
the road. Or stay here. Or go. Or stay.
A contessa. A girl on a roan horse behind
the goldenrod. The barn. The whiskey shelf.
Count options, false starts. And glooms of love,
the lover's next-room boredom. Juliet's in Verona.
Juliets are always in Verona after a few days.
Or trout and grouse, wading & walking after them.
Days of it. Dis. Dis. Dis. Dante called it,
this actual hell, this stillness. Lasting
how long? Waking is visionary. I'll awake but
to sleep again, new and bitter each new time.



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