Write Right

The Writing Life

poetry

Reflecting on Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Kindness”

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Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Kindness” opens with the following lines:

…..When deeds splay before us
precious as gold & unused chances
stripped from the whine bone,
we know the moment kindheartedness
walks in.

The five lines evoke a world, one in which there is an “us,” a “we.” This we—perhaps two people, perhaps a large number of people—examines deeds and unused chances, almost appearing as riches displayed on velvet cloth or constellations on a clear, blue-black night. In this examination, something reveals itself: “the moment kindheartedness / walks in.”

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Reflecting on Anne Sexton’s “Letter Written on a Ferry”

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Anne Sexton’s poem “Letter Written on a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound”—which is far too long to include with this brief reflection—begins in the middle of things. The speaker says, “I am surprised to see / that the ocean is still going on.” With that single sentence the speaker alludes to a history not ever fully disclosed to the reader. Hints exist, though, such as the “dearest” to whom the speaker directs her thoughts. Other words suggest a fraught relationship, words like “ripped” in the first stanza and “although everything has happened / nothing has happened” in the second.

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Write Right Greets the New Year

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A cartoon girl with a red pen stands in the snow. Five birds are on a tree branch, which intersects with the words "to the new year, W. S. Merwin."

To the New Year

By W. S. Merwin

With what stillness at last

you appear in the valley

your first sunlight reaching down

to touch the tips of a few

high leaves that do not stir

as though they had not noticed

and did not know you at all

then the voice of a dove calls

from far away in itself

to the hush of the morning

 

so this is the sound of you

here and now whether or not

anyone hears it this is

where we have come with our age

our knowledge such as it is

and our hopes such as they are

invisible before us

untouched and still possible