Karen Volkman

Karen Volkman Poems

Karen Volkman Biography

Karen Volkman (born 1967 Miami, Florida) is an American poet. She was educated at New College of Florida, Syracuse University, and the University of Houston. Her poems have appeared in anthologies including The Best American Poetry, and The Pushcart Prize XXVII. She has taught at several universities, including the University of Alabama, University of Pittsburgh, University of Chicago, and Columbia College Chicago. She currently lives in Missoula, and teaches in the MFA writing program at the University of Montana-Missoula.)

The Best Poem Of Karen Volkman

A Light Says Why

A light says why. From all the poor prying. Again we attain a more
regal posture--small bird accompanying slips between our whim.
Where will we flicker, loose as two feathers from a wren's back? Gone,
do not brood for all the hands that miss you. They hardly hold. Don't
wait, one who thought a dark eye could save you, like night with its black
paws curled and gone to sleep. There are only two names to remember,
Loss and Pleasure, crossed in this field like no man's borrowed light. Call
the far-sighted foxes to the launching. Call the small deer scattered in
the back brush, swift as flit. Contingency has arms and hands and wasted
faces. And a body, shrunk and scurvy, built to burn.

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