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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GHAZALS: 58 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: THESE LOSSES ARE FINAL - YOU WALKED OUT OF THE GRAPE ARBOR
Last Line: OF LILAC AND A GIRL BLEEDS THROUGH HER EYES LIKE A PIGEON.

These losses are final -- you walked out of the grape arbor
and are never to be seen again and you aren't aware of it.

I set off after the grail seven years ago but like a spiral
from above these circles narrow, tighten into a single point.

Let's forgive her for her Chinese-checker brain and the pills
that charge it electrically. She's pulled the switch too often.

After the country dance in the yellow Buick Dynaflow with
leather seats we thought Ferlin Husky was singing to us.

A bottle of Corbys won you. A decade later on hearing
I was a poet you laughed. You are permanently coarsened.

Catherine near the lake is a tale I'm telling -- a whiff
of lilac and a girl bleeds through her eyes like a pigeon.



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