Saturday, 23 February 2019

Emily Banks : part four

When you require renewal, is there a particular poem or book that you return to? A particular author?

“The Truth the Dead Know” by Anne Sexton. Wow, what a morbid response! It’s just a poem I fell in love with as a baby (teen) poet. Musically, the way Sexton varies short-clipped sentences with longer lines that strain against the tight stanzas she winds them into has such a visceral effect for me: “My darling, the wind falls in like stones / from the whitehearted water and when we touch / we enter touch entirely. No one’s alone.” When I read this poem, I feel it physically, like my heart rate is affected by each line. Knowing that words could do that fueled my determination to be a poet when I was younger, and it’s a nice reminder for myself now.

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