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by William MatthewsHear William Matthews read this poem (in RealAudio):
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Also by William Matthews:
Dire Cure (1997)
The Shooting (1996)
Cheat Seats, The Cincinnati Gardens, Professional Basketball, 1959 (1994)
The Blues (1989)
Homer's Seeing-Eye Dog (1988)
On the Porch at the Frost Place, Franconia, N.H. (1982)
See an Atlantic Unbound interview with William Matthews.
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The long path sap sludges up
through an iris, is it new
each spring? And what would
an iris care for novelty?
Urgent in tatters, it wants
to wrest what routine it can
from the ceaseless shifts
of weather, from the scrounge
it feeds on to grow beautiful
and bigger: last week the space
about to be rumpled
by iris petals was only air
through which a rabbit leapt,
a volley of heartbeats hardly
contained by fur, and then the clay-
colored spaniel in pursuit
and the effortless air
rejoining itself whole.
Copyright © 1980 by William Matthews. All rights reserved.
The Atlantic Monthly; June 1980; New; Volume 245, No. 6; page 67.
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