C. Violet Eaton
O but you must try the wine, must
Feel please my crêpe edge, crimped
& finger this foulard of silk twill,
This fox stole, decrepit, that I keep
Beneath my skirtses (which I lift.
It don't bother me in my black hat,
Mouth flapping : I wanted to freak
Them anyway, point out the trick
World in all its muggy smear & arc.
Lay me in the violincase laughing :
Ha ha, tu ne dis pas tout, il y a hoc,
A hic, a hiccup, a body : there is
something there—prior—speaks up
Against it, rises not in it. Someday
Sure I'll burn what I owe like tracing
A line cross a throat. But someone's
Dark moaning moodly, a music

Of spiritual poverty :
A dollar cacophany, a caterwaul,
Here & there a yip. 
from the book QUARTET / Ahsahta Press
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ON EARTH WE'RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS: POET OCEAN VUONG'S DEBUT NOVEL 

"Throughout the many revisions, the conceit was always clear: the novel would be a letter addressed to Vuong’s mother, who is illiterate. It uses a narrative structure called kishōtenketsu, commonly seen in the work of filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, a form that refuses to deploy conflict as a means of progressing the story. 'It insists that a narrative structure can survive and thrive on proximity alone,' Vuong says. 'Proximity builds tension.'"

viaTHE NEW YORK TIMES
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Image of Aaron McCollough"s Handwritten Copy of "This Is Just To Say"
WHAT SPARKS POETRY:
AARON MCCOLLOUGH ON WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS'S
"THIS IS JUST TO SAY"


"The poem is ultimately more about what isn’t there (the plums, the speaker, respect for the beloved’s property) than it is about what was there momentarily (the sensual pleasure of something “so sweet / and so cold” or the speaker’s remorse, however genuine)."
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