Admonitions To A Special Person by Anne Sexton
Admonitions To A Special Person
Anne SextonWatch out for power,
for its avalanche can bury you,
snow, snow, snow, smothering your mountain.Watch out for hate,
it can open its mouth and you’ll fling yourself out
to eat off your leg, an instant leper.Watch out for friends,
because when you betray them,
as you will,
they will bury their heads in the toilet
and flush themselves away.Watch out for intellect,
because it knows so much it knows nothing
and leaves you hanging upside down,
mouthing knowledge as your heart
falls out of your mouth.Watch out for games, the actor’s part,
the speech planned, known, given,
for they will give you away
and you will stand like a naked little boy,
pissing on your own child-bed.Watch out for love
(unless it is true,
and every part of you says yes including the toes) ,
it will wrap you up like a mummy,
and your scream won’t be heard
and none of your running will end.Love? Be it man. Be it woman.
It must be a wave you want to glide in on,
give your body to it, give your laugh to it,
give, when the gravelly sand takes you,
your tears to the land. To love another is something
like prayer and can’t be planned, you just fall
into its arms because your belief undoes your disbelief.Special person,
if I were you I’d pay no attention
to admonitions from me,
made somewhat out of your words
and somewhat out of mine.
A collaboration.
I do not believe a word I have said,
except some, except I think of you like a young tree
with pasted-on leaves and know you’ll root
and the real green thing will come.Let go. Let go.
Oh special person,
possible leaves,
this typewriter likes you on the way to them,
but wants to break crystal glasses
in celebration,
for you,
when the dark crust is thrown off
and you float all around
like a happened balloon.
MARGINALIA
Saw K. again yesterday, after seven years. She’s as lovely as ever. I wish the hours are longer, or that we had more hours. The oceans seem to always separate me from the people I want to be with.
ABOUT ANNE SEXTON
Anne Sexton was born in Newton, Massachusetts and raised in Weston, Massachusetts. One of the most popular poets of mid-20th century America, Sexton’s impressive body of work continues to be widely read and debated by literary scholars and cultural critics alike. Sexton’s books after To Bedlam and Part Way Back included All my Pretty Ones (1962), Live or Die (1966), which won the Pulitzer Prize, Love Poems (1969), the play Mercy Street (1969). Transformations (1972), a series… (more)
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ENDNOTES
- Explore other works in pursuit of: faith • surrender • love • Or browse the index
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siobhan
What beautiful wisdom and truth.
I read your posts every day, and they’re like little lights. Thank you very much for being a harbinger of poems that make me think, feel, and most importantly, know truth.
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crumblingviolet
oh, this is wonderful. A reminder of Anne Sexton always sets me on fire creatively. Thank you. For this poem and for this site.
Irene Bernacchi
hi! is this quote by Anne Sexton too?
Saw K. again yesterday, after seven years. She’s as lovely as ever. I wish the hours are longer, or that we had more hours. The oceans seem to always separate me from the people I want to be with.
T.
Hi, this is my own marginalia. — T.