1
In this now ancient ritual
a succession of young women
are saucy,
which is to say they name
common objects and relations
as if they had mastered them
but shouldn’t.
Each receives false approbation.
2
As Xmas sells winter
to its prisoners.
As warmth
feels like love;
and love is warmth
only more capricious.
Fingers uncurl.
Organs expand
and rise
toward a surface
that must never
be broken.
Just Saying,
Rae Armantrout’s most recent book of poems, was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2013..
Versed (Wesleyan, 2009) received the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was also a finalist for the National Book Award.
Next Life (Wesleyan, 2007) was chosen as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2007 by
The New York Times. Other recent books include
Money Shot (Wesleyan, 2011,)
Collected Prose (Singing Horse, 2007),
Up to Speed (Wesleyan, 2004),
The Pretext (Green Integer, 2001), and
Veil: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 2001). She is Professor of Poetry and Poetics at the University of California, San Diego. Writing in
Poetry magazine, Ange Mlinko has said, “I would trade the bulk of contemporary anecdotal free verse for more incisive, chilling poetry like
Armantrout’s.”
the Tuesday poem is curated by
rob mclennan
