Poetry about Poetry ... original or previously published poetry, March 2001

Paul Valéry's long silence

The thump of Degas' dancer on bare boards silenced
by Wagner's brass and spare, unvarnished draughtsmanship.

Any sound would awaken a sudden awareness
of our passing. Moonlight on marble,

an empty hall where voices resonate,
where a pendulum swings between being and knowing,

swings to the beat, swings to the swing,
where silence has lost its voice,

strenuously contesting each meaning
in a poem that listens so that we might overhear

his thoughts loud as a dancer's muscles.

Tim Love


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Updated December 2000
Tim Love