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Malak Mattar, Untitled (detail), 2024, charcoal on paper

Whatever

Whatever keeps
a heart this still
suffers itself
unmoved

Whatever casts
clouds before the eye
sees itself blind

Whatever stoops
to low things
is brought near itself

Whatever inspires
angels’ breath
is substantially wind

Whatever is
the Form of form is not it-
self known

Whatever moves
these words
to work
sings itself to sleep.

Published:

Gerald T. Gordon

Gerald T. Gordon has published about twenty poems as well as articles on William Carlos Williams, Ernest Hemingway, and Evelyn Waugh. (updated 1974)

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