the beauty we love

This Poem is No Place for Dashes

I’ll share a poem-in-progress of mine, as a two-part tribute to two amazing women. The title comes from a lovely poet friend of mine, Brianne Carpenter, whose website is forthcoming and most certainly worth the wait. The epigraph is from a friend, brilliant professor, and soon very-likely-to-be-best-selling-author, Rhoda Janzen. You can check out a preview of her book here, on the New York Times Magazine

This Poem is No Place for Dashes

“Dashes loosen the writing, scattering and interrupting the train of thought. Don’t get me wrong: I often like the flare and funniness of the dash. But given the babbling-brook stereotype that attaches to women, I’m going to suggest that men can better afford the dash.”
–Rhoda Janzen

or did you not have a mother, some barren
aunt, a matriarch beringed and pearled,
who knew too well the time to tell
a ripening girl to mind her lines, to look less

like her flesh is fraying loose
at its edges and its seams, spreading
thickly along a meter’s graceful
lope. She should have caught your flying

limbs, taught your swimming skin to stretch
itself out over bone, tight and drawn
as a bronze pot lid, a paper drum, perfect
for writing on with a pen or a sword.