Swans Commentary » swans.com April 9, 2012  

 


 

A Literary History
 

 

by Peter Byrne

 

Poetry

 

 

(Swans - April 9, 2012)  

He wanted to write a shelf of perfect books
But he hadn't the right title for the series

He decided to write only one but perfect
But some pages were better than others

He made a novella of the perfect pages
But some of them weren't so perfect

He turned instead to perfect a single page
But that, pored over, had a ragged feel

He fit the world into one long sentence
But the subordinate clauses made for lumps

He declared for the declarative kind
But that said too little too loud

He fell back on finding le mot juste
But words were each imperfect shapes

He would have to excel in punctuation
But " & " & : & ; lacked symmetry and form

A noble full-stop would be the thing
A pity he couldn't get it round enough and dark

 

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Swans -- ISSN: 1554-4915
URL for this work: http://www.swans.com/library/art18/pbyrne179.html
Published April 9, 2012



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