Let Me Make This Perfectly Clear by Gwendolyn MacEwen
Let Me Make This Perfectly Clear
Gwendolyn MacEwenLet me make this perfectly clear.
I have never written anything because it is a Poem.
This is a mistake you always make about me,
A dangerous mistake. I promise you
I am not writing this because it is a Poem.You suspect this is a posture or an act
I am sorry to tell you it is not an act.You actually think I care if this
Poem gets off the ground or not. Well
I don’t care if this poem gets off the ground or not
And neither should you.
All I have ever cared about
And all you should ever care about
Is what happens when you lift your eyes from this page.Do not think for one minute it is the Poem that matters.
Is is not the Poem that matters.
You can shove the Poem.
What matters is what is out there in the large dark
and in the long light,
Breathing.
MARGINALIA
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
ABOUT GWENDOLYN MACEWEN
Gwendolyn MacEwen was born in Toronto in 1941. Her first published poem appeared in The Canadian Forum when she was seventeen. She left school at eighteen to concentrate on her writing. Her work is included in most major Canadian anthologies. MacEwen was Writer-in-Residence at the University of Western Ontario in 1984-85 and at the University of Toronto in 1986-87. She died in November of 1987. (Source)
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