"I am 3/4ths Canadian, and one 4th New Englander - I had ancestors on both sides in the Revolutionary war." - Elizabeth Bishop
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Friday, August 21, 2015

RIP Elizabeth Jones (1934-2015)

Word has reached us of the unexpected death on August 20 of our dear friend and faithful contributor, poet-scholar Elizabeth Jones, whose erudition, wit, kindness, and boundless love for poetry brought joy to all who knew her.   We will write of her at length presently, but for now, a poem from her 1972 book Castings, in her memory:


Bare Truth

Too many leaves
a surplus of sunlight
       make for
profuse complexities
of birdsong and shadow.

Let the trees be stripped
to eternity and the design
       stand clear;
I always knew when I died
    I would know all.

Was this what I wanted? --
These question marks etched
       by a steel pen,
wrought-iron portals
swinging open
on cemeteries of snow?

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