"There will be such an awful beauty in your heart. A wound like a seal upon it."

— Nadzam, Bonnie


Work Title
Place of Publication
New York
Publisher
Other Press
Date
2011
Metaphor
"There will be such an awful beauty in your heart. A wound like a seal upon it."
Metaphor in Context
There will be such an awful beauty in your heart. A wound like a seal upon it. It will lie over all the cracked and hard city like a soft, bright-colored film. Your own face overlaid with the face you wore when you were with me in the mountains. A brighter face, a younger face, a soft one that mirrors the weather. You'll read books--little paperbacks-- looking for the kind of sentence that keeps the wound alive. And you must keep it alive. Don't you ever forget this hurt. Don't you ever forget what you've seen with me. It will save you. You'll be like an apple tree among all the ash-colored buildings of that granite city. Close your eyes. Turn away from the book in your lap, turn away from the sounds of everyone around you. Take a slow deep breath. Listen. It's the sound of the wind rushing through the box elder outside our window. It's the sound of me whispering. I'll be with you this way.
(pp. 268-9)
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Bonnie Nadzam, Lamb (New York: Other Press, 2011).
Date of Entry
06/07/2016

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