"But it was only the heart's / racketing flywheel stuttering I want, I want // until exhaustion, until I was a guest in the yoke / of my body by the last margin of land where the river // mingles with the sea & far off daylight whitens, / a rending & yielding I must kneel before, as // barges loose glittering mineral freight / & behind me façades gleam with pigeons // folding iridescent wings."

— Hull, Lynda (1954-1994)


Publisher
University of Massachusetts Press
Date
1986
Metaphor
"But it was only the heart's / racketing flywheel stuttering I want, I want // until exhaustion, until I was a guest in the yoke / of my body by the last margin of land where the river // mingles with the sea & far off daylight whitens, / a rending & yielding I must kneel before, as // barges loose glittering mineral freight / & behind me façades gleam with pigeons // folding iridescent wings."
Metaphor in Context
[...] But it was only the heart's
racketing flywheel stuttering I want, I want

until exhaustion, until I was a guest in the yoke
of my body by the last margin of land where the river

mingles with the sea & far off daylight whitens,
a rending & yielding I must kneel before, as

barges loose glittering mineral freight
& behind me façades gleam with pigeons

folding iridescent wings
. Their voices echo
in my voice naming what is lost, what remains.
(ll. 5-14)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Lynda Hull, Ghost Money (University of Massachusetts Press, 1986). <Link to Poets.org>
Date of Entry
05/19/2011

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.