(no subject)

[polishedglass.livejournal.com]

This is a photograph of me.
It was taken some time ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;

then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say where
precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion

but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will be able to see me.)

--Margaret Atwood

Comments

[polishedglass.livejournal.com]

oh, and if any of you are margaret atwood fans, as i am, could you recommend any other poets i might like?

[lunar-endeavor.livejournal.com]

My tastes are kind of all over the place, so I don't know what is good to recommend to a Margaret Atwood fan particularly. Umm--I'd go for Sandra Gilbert, for one. Louise Gluck also might be a good match. Do you read Anne Sexton? And if you don't read Dorothy Parker, you need to.

[arielblue.livejournal.com]

Denise Levertov, certainly, if you haven't read much of her. Some of Joy Harjo maybe. Older Adrienne Rich (especially "Diving Into the Wreck"). Perhaps Marge Piercy when she's at her best. I'll keep thinking about it and maybe add some more if I can come up with them.

Atwood's an underrated poet, I think -- largely because her fiction is so terrific and so well-known that the poetry gets overlooked. But I've always thought she was a fine, fine poet.

[clevermynnie.livejournal.com]

one of my favorites. thanks for posting this.

[idreamofjuly.livejournal.com]

what's the titleof this poem?