{"id":156451,"date":"2021-12-15T16:35:42","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T21:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=156451"},"modified":"2021-12-15T16:38:02","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T21:38:02","slug":"two-poems-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/15\/two-poems-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/a>

Illustration by Anna Bak-Kvapil<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Henry Hudson<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Wood is a masculine substance.
\nWitness the Arts and Crafts movement,
\nthe men at the helm of it.
\nWitness, for that matter, this room:
\nOak floor, oak walls, oaken ceiling.
\nThe air-conditioning grate ersatz oak.
\nThe slats of the ceiling fan oak veneer.
\nThe table I write on, particleboard
\nwith no pretense to oak, oak\u2019s sad cousin.
\nAnd the craftsman-style light fixtures, triangles,
\nright angles, dreamed up in the minds of geometers.
\nWhat does geometry illuminate?
\nI\u2019m the sad cousin of a mind.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n

The Arts and Crafts men were reacting
\nagainst Victorian furbelows, the ornaments of empire,
\nor, as they might have said, civilization.
\nStill, this room is only the sad cousin of nature.
\nIt has its smoke alarm, its watercooler,
\nits green exit sign (a threat, not an invitation),
\nits lectern, its monumental fireplace of unpolished granite,
\nits coffeemaker. Out the west-facing window
\nI see, flat and small as a playing card,
\nthe platinum slice of river, and beyond,
\nthe wiry cliffs of the Palisades. The sun is setting,
\n<\/i>pronounces Henry Hudson, eternally facing west,
\nbobbling on the deck of the Halve Maen<\/span><\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n

A Collection<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

A scarlet tin star bursts its compartment
\nin the display case.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

One Buddha coexists
\nwith a brass Egyptian cat.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Another is dwarfed by a brass-capped test tube
\nwhich might be a soul-body metaphor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

No collection can keep honest
\nwithout a pocket watch.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

How flexibly the several thick white hairs
\nlean in their<\/i> compartment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

From the collector\u2019s head
\nor a cat<\/span>\u2019s face? An ivory skull,<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

an ivory skull, an ivory skull, an ivory skull\u2014
\nthey\u2019d make nice earrings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

A tanned rose, once fresh.
\nOh, there are two<\/i> pocket watches.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

A possible third bends its sheen
\naway from the curious and backs into the gloom.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kathleen Ossip is the author of<\/em> July,<\/em> The Do-Over, and<\/em> The Cold War.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The eloquence of objects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1011,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[498],"tags":[33919,40684,14036,67827,68323,1022,17167,7221],"class_list":["post-156451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-british-arts-and-crafts-movement","tag-cat","tag-collectors","tag-featured","tag-henry-hudson","tag-nature","tag-objects","tag-poems"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTwo Poems by Kathleen Ossip<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 15, 2021 \u2013 The eloquence of objects\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2021\/12\/15\/two-poems-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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