Unveiling, Wakefield by Gail Mazur

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend October 29, 2015   Unveiling, Wakefield   Gail Mazur

I say to the named granite stone, to the brown grass, to the dead chrysanthemums, Mother, I still have a body, what else could receive my mind’s transmissions, its dots and dashes of pain? I expect and get no answer, no loamy scent of her coral geraniums. She who is now immaterial, for better or worse, no longer needs to speak for me to hear, as in a continuous loop, classic messages of wisdom, love and fury. MAKE! DO! a note on our fridge commanded. Here I am making, unmaking, doing, undoing.            Copyright © 2015 by Gail Mazur. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Within the first year after the death of a loved one, it is the custom for the Jewish family to gather at the gravesite for a ceremony called the unveiling, the dedication of the marker. Traditionally, a cloth or veil is removed from the stone. The conversation in the poem is itself an unveiling.” —Gail Mazur   Gail Mazur is the author of Figures in a Landscape (University of Chicago Press, 2011). She teaches in the graduate writing program at Emerson College and splits her time between Cambridge and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Poetry by Mazur   Figures in a Landscape (University of Chicago Press, 2011) "Guidebooks for the Dead" by Cynthia Cruz "Getting Close" by Victoria Redel "Metamorphosis" by James Richardson Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends.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