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Lines from a Journal I

a cento using lines from Katherine Mansfield’s journal

The year is nearly over.

A thick white mist reaches the edge of the field.

There is no limit to human suffering.

I am sad tonight. Perhaps it is the wind.

A thick white mist reaches the edge of the field.

This joy of being alone. What is it?

I am sad tonight. Perhaps it is the wind.

The black chair, half in shadow, as if a happy person sprawled there.

This joy of being alone. What is it?

I feel the new life coming nearer.

The black chair, half in shadow, as if a happy person sprawled there.

For all the sun, it is raining outside.

I feel the new life coming nearer.

And then the dream is over and I begin working again.

For all the sun, it is raining outside.

I feel always trembling on the brink of poetry.

And then the dream is over and I begin working again.

Am I less of a writer than I used to be?

I feel always trembling on the brink of poetry.

Sometimes I glance up at the clock.

Am I less of a writer than I used to be?

I must begin all over again.

Sometimes I glance up at the clock.

To look up through the trees to the faraway blue.

I must begin all over again.

To live—to live—that is all.

To look up through the trees to the faraway blue.

I want to remember how the light fades from a room.

To live—to live—that is all.

There is no limit to human suffering.

I want to remember how the light fades from a room.

The year is nearly over.

from What Happens is NeitherFind more by Angela Narciso Torres at the library

Copyright © 2021 Angela Narciso Torres
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Four Way Books.

Published in Angela Narciso Torres Poems

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.