The appearance of perfection:
Chiaroscuro come to an August day
Wafted by van Rijn.
Against the waving sky is the great tree
Icon for what, I do not wish to know.
Icon for what I do not wish to know.
What I cannot defeat I will to learn to meet.
Measure with level gaze on ordained ground;
Parry, attack and parry, sabers clanging
Along the warning lines.
This shadow fencer is unwearying
Nor will his blade aim for my side or arm:
It is heart’s blood he seeks.
So be it. This is an honorable stain
And I may give in kind.
Five points in all—
A venerable number.
Right deep I bear these wounds into the sun
And lean against the tree.
And lean against the tree.
—Myrna Reid
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Great Excommunicator
When Sam Tanenhaus agreed in 1998 to write a biography of William F. Buckley Jr., it would…
The Post-Californian Ideology
On November 6, 1996, Al Gore called Peter Navarro to express his sympathy. Navarro, a left-leaning economics…
The Right to Be Killed
In the days surrounding the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., leaders of the civil rights movement…
