No doubt someone has shared this poem on Poetry Friday before; it's such a good one. I'm still working on my own poems, made of words from headlines in the New York Times. Right now they are coming out really angry, and whether that speaks to the zeitgeist, my own frame of mind, or both, I couldn't tell you! I'm trying to get at my own form but haven't yet arrived. I did realize that unlike headline writers, I wasn't limited by space constrictions, so that let me cut out and paste in some "a"s, "the"s "and"s, and so on.
I like the repetitions, word choices, and arrangement of white space in this Hirshfield poem. She has found her own form, and I'm reminded how important it is to read mentor works. That "we" in "Let Them Not Say" keeps us readers on the hook.
The Poetry Friday roundup for February 7th is at Carol Varsalona's Beyond Literacy Link.
Thanks to the Academy of American Poets for its Instagram account, where I found "Let Them Not Say."
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