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Representative Poetry Online, edition 6.0, is a web anthology of 4,800 poems in English and French by over 700 poets spanning 1400 years.  more about RPO

 

 

 

 

yes at first

Atwood, Margaret (1939 - )
1yes at first you
2go down smooth as
3pills, all of me
4breathes you in and then it's
5a kick in the head, orange
6and brutal, sharp jewels
7hit and my
8hair splinters
9                    the adjectives
10fall away from me, no
11threads left holding
12me, I flake apart
13layer by
14layer down
15quietly to the bone, my skull
16unfolds to an astounded flower
17regrowing the body, learning
18speech again takes
19days and longer
20each time / too much of
21this is fatal
 What thou lovest well remains,
                  the rest is dross
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
What thou lov'st well is thy true heritage
Whose world, or mine or theirs
                or is it of none?
First came the seen, then thus the palpable
    Elysium, though it were in the halls of hell,
What thou lovest well is thy true heritage
What thou lov'st well shall not be reft from thee
Ezra Pound Pisan Cantos, LXXXI
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