Heart to Heart by Rita Dove

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend February 14, 2017   Heart to Heart   Rita Dove

It's neither red nor sweet. It doesn't melt or turn over, break or harden, so it can't feel pain, yearning, regret.   It doesn't have  a tip to spin on, it isn't even shapely— just a thick clutch of muscle, lopsided, mute. Still, I feel it inside its cage sounding a dull tattoo: I want, I want—   but I can't open it: there's no key. I can't wear it on my sleeve, or tell you from the bottom of it how I feel. Here, it's all yours, now— but you'll have to take me, too.            Copyright © 2017 Rita Dove. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "How to find words for the human heart and all the emotions we ascribe to it? The path is a veritable minefield of clichés—those well-intentioned, once-fresh expressions whose very popularity has rendered them useless, even laughable. I decided to take these tired metaphors and deconstruct their camouflage, until all that remains is the true 'heart' of the matter: one human being, stripped of blather and artifice, speaking to the beloved." —Rita Dove   Rita Dove is the author of Collected Poems: 1974-2004 (W. W. Norton, 2016). She teaches at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.   Photo credit: Fred Viebahn   Poetry by Dove   Collected Poems: 1974-2004 (W. W. Norton, 2016)  "the lost women" by Lucille Clifton "Forecast" by Camille Rankine "A Nearly Perfect Morning" by Jessica Greenbaum Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. If you enjoy Poem-a-Day, please consider making a donation to help make it possible. 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