For Louise Bogan

the poem as a last resort

for louise bogan

women have no wilderness in them,
they are provident instead…
from “women analysis”

u put me in touch with that tight knot
of irrational emotion portrayed faithfully,
u said, by the feeling experienced in
the moment. get it on paper, u demanded,
knowing that such authentic feeling
might be better used elsewhere & thus
made the crafting of a poem, for me,
an onerous task filled with terror &
doubt. when u wrote, achingly, lyrically
acting out the confrontation of poet
v. emotion, following faithfully a
traditional 17th century English mode,
writing masterpieces of crossed rhythms
wherein meter opposes word groupings
with delicacy & artistry, such were the
naked, exhibitionist proof in beautiful
verse of the desperation in yr world in
the small; an authentic sign of the finality
& exigency of betrayal & distrust;
of the eager meaninglessness of love



©Joseph McNair;2009