The Urban Range Welcome to the Urban Range.  A collective of poets with diverse aesthetics, we celebrate the expanse and multiplicity of poetry today.
Ruth Danon Elisabeth Frost David Groff Amy Holman Melissa Hotchkiss
Blog News Projects Art
Stephen Massimilla Hermine Meinhard Elaine Sexton Soraya Shalforoosh



    Ruth Danon



Long After (Mallarmé)

irony and pity, some ghosts, some
little pictures of ghosts, some
ancient visual
history of ghosts, livid ghosts and
tiny ghosts, ghosts of rubies
ghosts of diamonds. Once politique,
not any more. You can't say
it that way. Not any more. Ghostly
light of appropriation. Appropriate
ghost. Sad clown, you are
nothing possible. What's a dot com
anyway? Nothing that was , (I say).
I could sit all day, cat
at my feet. Assertion as
comfort, certain as death.
Appropriate garden,
leafy leaf. Can't see
at all, small
child on the water, can't
see at all.
Fabricated landscape,
can see it all
jar, hill.
Prior encounter,
Fall. What will dot com?
Nothing that is.
Cloud, power of ten.
Poem Zero. Hello.



This poem first appeared in 3rd Bed and was then reprinted in Best American Poetry, 2002.




Back to poems

Credits | Copyright © 2024 The Urban Range