The Anti-Grief by Marianne Boruch

Author:Marianne Boruch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

To Be in Conversation, He Says, With

Henry James of course. I’m asked at dinner if I too

have read The Jolly Corner, the best, a marvel, no question.

Me, stunned by how many

stories that novelist wrote, including this

of the ridiculous title, Henry James not such a jolly guy

to my mind. But I get it’s a ghost tale.

I love this though. I love that the rug in this room

could be thought

in conversation with the floor and wall and window.

What about exhaustion, boots dragging in

a now-microscopic recall

of dog shit and sand from the beach.

I remind myself, not sadly: no beach around here

and besides, it’s winter.

In conversation. The back-and-forth between

stars and planets, Cassiopeia stuck crooked in her chair,

singing out her bad bones to the void.

Down where we are, who wouldn’t

want to be in conversation with the rare

salt-of-the-earth who trusts each day to keep on

okay enough to bear, or if not,

well, not…

And what would it mean to look

at a glass of wine as if

in conversation with grapes, rain, sun,

at least three languages

tangled up there, the sweat, the old relief

of lunch before the long afternoon

wears out. Then it grows

dark in those vineyards, and whatever’s sacred

about worms and sparrows

beds down too. And all talk stops.

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