monday poem #254: Elizabeth Alexander, "Ars Poetica #13: The Idea of Ancestry"
I think American Sublime is Alexander's best book, though maybe it's just that I'm finally ready to appreciate her. Either way, I loved this one.
Ars Poetica #13: The Idea of Ancestry
Ralph Ellison's house is underground
next door to my house. Somehow we
buried it during the renovation.
The stream of which he wrote, the lullaby
sung softly by its banks is the one
my children sing, in tongues.
Ralph Ellison had an outside child-
shh-it is whispered, but when
will someone tell me the full story?
We buried his house under cast-off
sheetrock, beams, and broken appliances.
Walk in my flowering peony bed
and you'll find it, a TV antenna
made from a bent wire hanger:
what's left of Ralph Ellison's house.
It picks up mysterious whispers.
- Elizabeth Alexander
from American Sublime
Originally posted at Dreamwidth || Read
comments on Dreamwidth
Ars Poetica #13: The Idea of Ancestry
Ralph Ellison's house is underground
next door to my house. Somehow we
buried it during the renovation.
The stream of which he wrote, the lullaby
sung softly by its banks is the one
my children sing, in tongues.
Ralph Ellison had an outside child-
shh-it is whispered, but when
will someone tell me the full story?
We buried his house under cast-off
sheetrock, beams, and broken appliances.
Walk in my flowering peony bed
and you'll find it, a TV antenna
made from a bent wire hanger:
what's left of Ralph Ellison's house.
It picks up mysterious whispers.
- Elizabeth Alexander
from American Sublime
Originally posted at Dreamwidth || Read
comments on Dreamwidth