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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GHAZALS: 61 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: WONDERING WHAT THIS NEW LIGHT IS, BEFORE HE DIED HE WALKED
Last Line: AND WE HUGGED IN A DARK ATTIC, NOT KNOWING HOW TO CONTINUE.
Subject(s): DESIRE; REGRET; SHAME;

Wondering what this new light is, before he died he walked
across the kitchen and said, "My stomach is very cold."

And this haze, yellowish, covers all this morning, meadow,
orchard, woods. Something bad is happening somewhere to her.

I was ashamed of her Appalachian vulgarity and vaguely askew
teeth, her bad grammar, her wanting to screw more often than I.

It was May wine and the night liquid with dark and fog when
we stopped the car and loved to the sound of frogs in the swamp.

I'm bringing to a stop all my befouled nostalgia about childhood.
My eye was gored out, there was a war and my nickname was @3pig@1.

There was an old house that smelled of kerosene and apples
and we hugged in a dark attic, not knowing how to continue.



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