Poem: “The Dress”

Poet: Mark Strand

Source: Collected Poems: Mark Strand- bought new at Crow Bookstore in Burlington, VT

Favorite Line/phrase: “But if you step out of your dress and move into the shade,/ the mole will find you, and will the owl, and so will the poem,/ and you will fall into another darkness, one you will find/ yourself making and remaking until it is perfect.”

Response: For some reason, this reminds me of my favorite poem, “Hematite Lake,” by James Galvin.  The idea of darkness or nightfall being a home runs through both and calls to me for reasons I can’t quite name.  Maybe that is why we read poems, to have others name what we cannot.