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Salute Your Shorts: 10 Poems of 4 Lines or Less

by The Versed

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In this episode of The Versed, Nora and Rachel take on the monster task of analyzing 10 poems (each with four lines or less). Nobody had to do it, but they did it anyway! Poets include W.S. Merwin, A.R. Ammons, Mary Oliver, Ezra Pound, Wendy Cope, Hayden Carruth, Jack Gilbert, Joseph Hutchinson, and Margaret Atwood.

lyrics

Their Sex Life
by A.R. Ammons

One failure on
Top of another.


Artichoke
by Joseph Hutchinson

O heart weighed down by so many wings.


You Fit Into Me
by Margaret Atwood

you fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye


Valley of the Spirits
by Jack Gilbert

Not for rhyme or reason, but for the heart's
sweet seasons and her perfect back sleeping
in the morning dark.


The Last Poem In The World
by Hayden Carruth

Would I write it, if I could?
Bet your glitzy ass I would.


Separation
by W.S. Merwin

Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.


Two Cures for Love
by Wendy Cope

1. Don't see him. Don’t phone or write a letter.
2. The easy way: get to know him better.


And the days are not full enough
by Ezra Pound

And the days are not full enough.
And the nights are not full enough.
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass.


The Uses of Sorrow
by Mary Oliver

(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.


Elegy
by W.S. Merwin

Who would I show it to

credits

released January 16, 2013

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