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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Carol Rumens

Poem of the week: Ars Poetica, XI by Mary Jean Chan

starry skies, crescent Moon and shooting star in blue hour twilight time.
‘You hear echoes, wilderness / among stars devoid of human tempers’ Photograph: m-gucci/Getty Images

Ars Poetica, XI

This is the myth of love’s tenderness:
that it only heals and cannot wound.
After thirty years of spinning around
in space, you hear echoes, wilderness
among stars devoid of human tempers.
Linger there — it is quiet — your breath
audible as the staccato burn on a hearth.
Dear reader, how often are you tempted
to infidelity with words: those curious
shapes that simply demand you listen?
Offer a translation your life can bear.
Revisit poems that spark mysterious
doorways in the mind and glistening
eyes. Let ink seep into what you hear.

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