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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GHAZALS: 2 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: I LOAD MY OWN SHELLS AND HAVE A SUITCASE OF PRESSED
Last Line: "& NITROGEN, THE ROWS ARE CROOKED AND THE FIELD LIMP, DEPLETED."

I load my own shells and have a suitcase of pressed
cardboard. Naturally I'm poor and picturesque.

My father is dead and doesn't care if his vault leaks,
that his casket is cheap, his son a poet and a liar.

All the honest farmers in my family's past are watching
me through the barn slats, from the corncrib and hogpen.

Ghosts demand more than wives & teachers. I'll make a
"V" of my two books and plow a furrow in the garden.

And I want to judge the poetry table at the County Fair.
A new form, poems stacked in pyramids like prize potatoes.

This county agent of poetry will tell poets, "More potash
& nitrogen, the rows are crooked and the field limp, depleted."



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