The Beginning and the End<\/p>\n
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What do we make of the God of vengeance, the bloodshed of kings,<\/p>\n
\u00a0 the women running from homes without<\/p>\n
preparation; what do we make at the end of astonishment\u2019s<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 glance without preparation for darkness, and afterward,<\/p>\n
darkness? What do we make of the landscape where stone begat stone,<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0where soil was lifted and carried, and the cell\u2019s<\/p>\n
transparency was lifted and carried; what do we make of the feathers,<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0the imprint of glass, the black weather swept<\/p>\n
into floorboards; what do we make of the twenty-seven bones<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 of the hand, the clod of dirt, the ring?<\/p>\n
What do we make of the son replacing his meals with mourning,<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0his evening run and the hour of bedtime reading<\/p>\n
with mourning? What do we make of a father\u2019s wristwatch, a hospital<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0window, sun-splintered; what do we make<\/p>\n
of the driver\u2019s license and telephone number, the heart\u2019s<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0empty quarter, the history of voices, birthplace and geography,<\/p>\n
the blurred eye, the shoelace pulled from the shoe?<\/p>\n
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“The Beginning and the End” is reprinted from\u00a0Without Wings <\/em>(CavanKerry Press, 2009).<\/p>\n Laurie Lamon’s<\/a> poems have appeared in The Atlantic,<\/a> The New Republic, The New Criterion,<\/a> Ploughshares<\/em>, Arts &<\/em> <\/a>Letters<\/a>, Journal of Contemporary Culture <\/em>and others, including 180 More Extraordinary Poems for Ordinary Days<\/em>,<\/a> edited by Billy Collins, and the Poetry Daily<\/em> and Verse Daily<\/em> websites. In 2007 she received a Witter Bynner award, selected by Poet Laureate Donald Hall.She has also received a Pushcart Prize. Lamon holds an M.F.A. from the University of Montana and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Her two collections of poetry are The Fork Without Hunger<\/em> <\/a>and Without Wings,<\/em> <\/a>CavanKerry Press (NJ), 2005 and 2009. \u00a0She is\u00a0a professor of English at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n READING: \u00a0Laurie Lamon will be reading from The Plume Anthology of Poetry, 2012<\/em><\/a>\u00a0at Elliott Bay Books<\/a> on Thursday, November 1, along with poets James Bertolino, Brian Culhane, Tess Gallagher, and Richard Kenney,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Beginning and the End What do we make of the God of vengeance, the bloodshed of kings, \u00a0 the women running from homes without preparation; what do we make at the end of astonishment\u2019s \u00a0 \u00a0 glance … Continue reading