Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CONTRA MORTEM: THE THAW, by HAYDEN CARRUTH


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CONTRA MORTEM: THE THAW, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Rigidity nonlife the meaning neither of life
Last Line: The water by drop by drop begins to fall
Subject(s): Spring


Rigidity nonlife the meaning neither of life
nor of unlife neither a presence nor an absence
but the snowworld the compacted snow and ice
so powerful that the granite
formed in the nuclear sun clicks like the dice
in a crapshooter's hand and shatters a white
incumbency white being the color
of hardness as in the unusual power
of iridium a lithic ideal gripping the forest
in petrifaction bringing
the encompassing the silence the sidereal frost
not just an antisound but a singing
of nothing a reciting of nevertobeborn until
whether near or remote auspicious or menacing
the water by drop by drop by drop begins to fall.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org




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