Your Ardor by Kathleen Ossip

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend January 2, 2015   Your Ardor   Kathleen Ossip

To dream of your ardor is much joy and much happiness. Your ardor tells me that I am making a mistake by not taking hold of what is offered to me.   What I mean when I say “your ardor” is stenciled on the air that surrounds your big face. The force of your ardor pushes strangely.   All that matters now is your ardor. It solves a most formidable equation. How old is your ardor? I think it was born when it met me.   You should heed your ardor. It will scoop you out, little melon:            Your ardor as good as its master          Your ardor tomorrow and your ardor yesterday          Your ardor in January          Your ardor dripping sharp as vinegar          Your ardor dripping pale as ashes          Your ardor with its quick reply          Your ardor and your hot hard argument          Your ardor with a hatchet          Your ardor          Your ardor drinking and talking          Your ardor local and authentic          Your ardor of lost fame          Your ardor that hits the button and initiates          Your ardor stronger than your pride          Your ardor in squalor          Your ardor that squeaks          Your ardor that spends and spends   Your pen is my lure. Your ardor my wire.   The night your ardor first beset me I cried “Zyer! Oh, zyer!” Who cares what I meant. I don’t retain facts. We hate facts, don’t we, they never did a thing for us.   Behind the screen of your ardor lies the globe of the Earth above which the eagle can be seen soaring up toward the sun, which has my face. It grins high in the purple sky. On either side stand two allegorical figures, the Way of Virtue and the Way of Vice.   Your ardor comes on like a pun, making the most of all possible significances.   Your ardor so close now to my ardor. Our ardors twitch, so sensitive to control. I just want your ardor to have fun in there! What next, what next, oh ardors?   Here it is. Here’s what we call the Red Spot.            Copyright © 2015 by Kathleen Ossip. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “At the end of a semester when I’ve taught a lot, I like to go be a student, for balance. Last May I ended up in Geoffrey Nutter’s wonderful private class in upper Manhattan, which centers around a magical pile of source texts strewn across a long table; at that table, I wrote ‘Your Ardor.’ So there are images and language from those texts in the poem, and ardor was very much on my mind at the time.” —Kathleen Ossip   Kathleen Ossip is the author of The Do-Over (Sarabande Books, 2015). She teaches at The New School and lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Most Recent Book by Ossip   The Do-Over (Sarabande Books, 2015) "The Ecstasy" by Phillip Lopate "I’m Nobody! Who are you? (260)" by Emily Dickinson "Rime Riche" by Monica Ferrell 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