When a poem speaks by itself, it has a spark and can be considered part of a divine conversation. Sometimes the poem weaves like a basket around two loaves of yellow bread. "Break off a piece of this April with its raisin nipples," it says. "And chew them slowly under your pillow. You belong in bed with me." On the other hand, when a poem speaks in the voice of a celebrity it is called television or a movie. "There is nothing to see," say Robert De Niro, though his poem bleeds all along the edges like a puddle crudely outlined with yellow tape at the crime scene of spring. "It is an old poem," he adds. "And besides, I was very young when I made it."
From The Cloud of Knowable Things by Elaine Equi. Copyright © 2003 by Elaine Equi. Published by Coffee House Press. Used with the permission of the publisher. All rights reserved.