Elm | The Poetry Foundation

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First published in Ariel, 1965. Reprinted in The Collected Poems, 1981. Disability Poetics Advertise with Poetry Poetry Magazine Poetry Magazine Archive Submit to Poetry

Share For Ruth Fainlight I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root: It is what you fear. I do not fear it: I have been there. Is it the sea you hear in me, Its dissatisfactions? Or the voice of nothing, that was your madness? Love is a shadow. How you lie and cry after it Listen: these are its hooves: it has gone off, like a horse. All night I shall gallop thus, impetuously, Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf, Echoing, echoing. Or shall I bring you the sound of poisons? This is rain now, this big hush. And this is the fruit of it: tin-white, like arsenic.

Elm | The Poetry Foundation

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