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April 2008
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Before poetry month slips away, here's a brief tribute to a couple of gifted women. The first is the author of one of my favorite poems, Ann Darr. She wrote "Before Dawn," wherein she talks of the nasty things she will do to a bird that has awakened her. The last lines are: I shall debird him. Hold.
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Posted by Nancy Churnin @ 3:06 PM Fri, Apr 25, 2008
Michael, I actually met Ann Darr when I was an undergraduate at Harvard and she was at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe. I was so impressed with her as a poet and as a person; she was so warm and kind and welcoming and modest. I remember that this was my favorite poem by her at the time:
"The Gift."
Daughter, this small stick which I found
sticking in my ribs, I have wiped clean
and given back to you. You will need it.
I had hoped there was some other way.
Some way for you to take your self from me
with the violence.
I defended myself, of course, until now
I am hardly prepared for these scenes
we play. I have forgotten,
if I ever knew, how to repair
my face.
Can't I engage
some Fury to play my part with me, so that
in the climax when you leave my house
"forever" I can defy you, as I must if
I would pass the prompt-book, nay the old stiletto
which belonged to my mother's mother's mother's . .