Post by louisa on Oct 12, 2008 23:48:38 GMT 2
Erin Mouré
6 Notes for a Mazurka
If we are, it is true, without gentleness in our lives
the absolute scent of the haystack
risen from memory
wherein our arms have laboured
this haystack & the yellow smell of it
the dry smell of weeds & limpened grasses
the smell of the motorcycle ridden suddenly
into this hay
If it is true that we are without this gentleness
the strain of the lateral muscles
regulating the spine
the strain of the back, say,
lifting up the bales with work gloves
striped at the wrist
leather palms
hot day
I remember you out there
angry at me
Far behind you the raked & cut lawn
green
glimmered
a tea party of the empty chairs
Striped Blue
Or the work gloves striped blue lying by the door
empty absolute of their fingers the leather palms
greasy in the centre & fingers bent whistling a
famous tune "Have you ever been to Dallas" they
sing crudely & the cows moo they begin to moo
when they hear this having heard of Dallas before
I think on television they press their sides on the
fence-wire "o Dallas is a dreamer" they raise their
lips & moo
The rest of the poem's four notes can be found at
www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/moure/poem1.htm
Other links of interest:
www.griffinpoetryprize.com/poets-mz.php?t=3
www.parl.gc.ca/information/about/people/poet/poem-of-the-week/poems-e.htm?param=8
www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/moure/index.htm
www.poetics.ca/poetics04/04moure.html
www.brocku.ca/canadianwomenpoets/Moure.htm