Poem-A-Day: from In This World of 12 Months by Marcella Durand

from In This World of 12 Months by Marcella Durand     Your voice carries easily through liquid; bridge is halved by fog, as your tongue is divided in mist. The fog of machinery augmented by steam. Powered and then not powered, below a line, dark. Cold, the weather has turned and out there, turbines still. Water has divided, soft things and diverse: what seemed one broke. Two cities and more. Lines reappear. Across there is a wall also a door or steam turns into fog. The bridge is two; light is taken. People enjoy themselves, looking at glittering potential floods. It is so nice to have a view.         Copyright © 2013 by Marcella Durand. Used with permission of the author.     About This Poem "'In This World of 12 Months' is an excerpt from a booklength alexandrine. A traditional French form, the alexandrine is considered to have never quite worked in English--unwieldy for long works, with a propensity to become 'excessively mechanical' (per the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics). One of the original alexandrines, Li romans d'Alixandre, was intended to 'offer the complete life of the hero to the public.' Instead, I wander into the public life of the city, discovering in the alexandrine's twelve-foot length an echo of urban spaces contending with water, wind, entropy, development, diversity, ongoing negotiations of territory."    --Marcella Durand Most Recent Book by Durand Traffic & Weather (Future Poem, 2008)   Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on  weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive. July 15, 2013 Marcella Durand is the author of several books, including  Traffic & Weather (Future Poem, 2008). She lives in New York City. Related Poems Inland by Chase Twichell Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams Useless Landscape by D. A. Powell   Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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