26 Jun Harvesting Darkness
Harvesting Darkness is the title of my new book of poems, due out this coming September.
So, since this will be my last post of the season until then, I wanted to share one of my favorite poems in it with you. I hope you have a peaceful and joyful summer.
Lacemakers
(for Suzanne Braun Levine)
The little Infanta Princess of Spain
was dressed in lace for her portrait.
Yet courtiers thought her not perfect enough,
so added the Dwarf to heighten her beauty.
The painting is famous because of the Dwarf.
They also assumed it our duty for centuries
to gladly go blind tatting the edges
of their nightcaps, cuffs, wedding hems,
petticoats, kerchiefs, and veils.
All without flaws, without even one–not one–flaw.
They never perceived our revenge,
that the flaw had to be so exquisite, perfected,
minute, unseen and yet visible
it was safe from being detected.
To this day they don’t see it: the flaw is the point.
It’s the necessity, it’s everything,
the work’s lifeless without it. The bruise
on the pear. The planet’s wobble. The fungus.
The mutation. The disobedience. The deliberate
flaw in the Navaho blanket:
to let the soul out.
{See you in September.}
Copyright 2022 Robin Morgan