PoetryMagazine.com
Forrest Gander
USA
Forest Gander Photo by Gaily Romero.
Forrest Gander has
degrees in geology and English literature. His
recent books include the novel As a Friend,
the (just-released) book of poems Core
Samples from the World, and the translation
Firefly Under the Tongue: Selected Poems of
Coral Bracho (PEN Translation Prize
Finalist), all from New Directions. A United
States Artists Rockefeller Fellow, Gander is
recipient of fellowships from the NEA, the
Guggenheim, Howard, and Whiting foundations. His
forthcoming titles include Watchword, a
translation of Pura López Colomé’s Villaurrutia
Prize-winning poetry and Spectacle & Pigsty,
a co-translation of poems by Kiwao Nomura.
Gander teaches at Brown University.
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Anniversary
Not be known always
by my wounds, I buried melancholy’s larva
And followed you. I gathered myself
Like the dusk
to the black tulips of your nipples. (Tulips Tulips)
For seven days we locked the door
we scoured the room with bird’s blood.
And for a little while
In the hollow where your throat rose
From between your splendid clavicles (Rose Rose),
Our only rival was music.
The piano of bone-whiteness.
Nor did the light subside. But deepeningly
Contracted.
The rawness of the looking.
The quiver.
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© Copyright, 2011,
Forrest Gander.
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