Poem: Jay Wright

"The Liatris has become Athenian,
a sacred grain, mark of a girl who dreams
perfection, the immutable extremes,
almost a strategy without a text.
What must the ascetic self, Marian
in its depths, understand by such a vexed
disposition of minor stars, canon
bound, all too discursive, all too common?
The infinite must endure unfolding,
or, as some might say, a blessed descent.
Think augury in premises, whirling
bodies ontologically content.
Qué muerte tan larga...you must forgive
the way I hold my memory, string
my questions upon an air that seems bent
with an ambition that remains furtive."

-- Copyright © 2.17 "The Liatris has become Athenian," by Jay Wright, from Disorientations: Groundings, Chicago: Flood Editions, 2013. All rights reserved.

Jay Wright, teaching in the
Poetry-in-the-Schools program
(Poets.org)