Hothouse by Raymond McDaniel

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 25, 2016   Hothouse   Raymond McDaniel

A rose, rose. A violet, violet. A jade, jade. No. The architecture of each, a refusal.   Rose is not rose nor violet violet nor jade jade. But each is what it is, not what it seems.   What each seems is what of each gets seen. Though what we see isn’t the thing seen.   The petals of the rose are violet and jade. Thus the petals of the rose look, to us, rose.   The shape of the violet absorbs all but violet. The violet we see is the violet a violet rejects.   A rose is a rose is a rose, but not as a rose. Jade is the name of jade, not the jade named.            Copyright © 2016 Raymond McDaniel. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “I think it’s beautiful and weird and dangerous that we name things according to what we see as their attributes (and attribute things according to names). ‘Hothouse’ is from a book about how we see, and everything that interferes with seeing.” —Raymond McDaniel   Raymond McDaniel is the author of The Cataracts, forthcoming from Coffee House Press in 2017. He teaches at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.   Poetry by McDaniel   Special Powers and Abilities (Coffee House Press, 2012)  "Tender Buttons [A Plate]" by Gertrude Stein "Sea Rose" by H. D. "The Purpose of Ritual" by Melissa Broder Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. 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.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038