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Author Topic:   "Love Letter" by Sylvia Plath
Heart--Shaped Cross
Knowflake

Posts: 2735
From: 11/6/78 11:38am Boston, MA
Registered: Aug 2004

posted July 31, 2006 06:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Heart--Shaped Cross     Edit/Delete Message
Love Letter

Not easy to state the change you made.
If I'm alive now, then I was dead,
Though, like a stone, unbothered by it,
Staying put according to habit.
You didn't just toe me an inch, no--
Nor leave me to set my small bald eye
Skyward again, without hope, of course,
Of apprehending blueness, or stars.

That wasn't it. I slept, say: a snake
Masked among black rocks as a black rock
In the white hiatus of winter--
Like my neighbors, taking no pleasure
In the million of perfectly-chisled
cheeks alighting each moment to melt
My cheek of basalt. They turned to tears,
Angels weeping over dull natures,
But didn't convince me. Those tears froze.
Each dead head had a visor of ice.

And I slept on like a bent finger.
The first thing I saw was sheer air
And the locked drops rising in the dew
Limpid as spirts. Many stones lay
Dense and expressionless round about.
I didn't know what to make of it.
I shone, mica-scaled, and unfolded
To pour myself out like a fluid
Among bird feet and the stems of plants.
I wasn't fooled. I knew you at once.

Tree and stone glittered, without shadows.
My finger-length grew lucent as glass.
I started to bud like a March twig:
An arm and a leg, an arm, a leg.
From stone to cloud, so I ascended.
Now I resemble a sort of god
Floating through the air in my soul-shift
Pure as a pane of ice. It's a gift.

~~Sylvia Plath


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'Would you know your Lord's meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was his meaning. Who showed it to you? Love. What did he show you? Love. Why did he show it? For love. Keep yourself therein and you shall know and understand more in the same. But you shall never know nor understand any other thing, forever.'
- Julian of Norwich

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Randall
Webmaster

Posts: 23638
From: Columbus, GA USA
Registered: Nov 2000

posted August 05, 2006 02:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message

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"There is no use trying," said Alice; "one can't believe impossible things." "I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Lewis Carroll

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D for Defiant
Knowflake

Posts: 488
From:
Registered: May 2006

posted August 10, 2006 01:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for D for Defiant     Edit/Delete Message

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May not be able to get back to you...appreciate your say nevertheless...D

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