Rosmarie Waldrop

The Round World

BY ROSMARIE WALDROP

nature’s inside, says Cézanne and

frightening

I do not like the fleshy

echo

 

 

even so, it is

 

 

after this close proof

vision is made

of matter

 

 

another mirror

 

 

it’s possible

the eye knows

even where there should have been a lake

 

 

this optic an illusion

look

at the cat, his changing

shapes

a habit

 

 

light

color

composition

 

 

the subject more than meets the

situation, always

looking

at our own eye

Rosmarie Waldrop, "The Round World" from Another Language: Selected Poems. Copyright © 1997 by Rosmarie Waldrop.  Reprinted by permission of Rosmarie Waldrop.

Source: Another Language: Selected Poems (Talisman House Publishers, 1997)

Source: Poetry Foundation