Omissions Poem by gershon hepner

If omissions are not accidents,
what’s included may not be
deliberate, and often makes less sense
than silence, best of derniers cris.

Brad Leithauser reviews “The Poems of Marianne Moore, ” edited by Grace Schulman (Viking) in The New York Times Book Review (January 4,2004) :

The earlier “Complete Poems” opened with a striking authorial dictum: “Omissions are not accidents.” The new book shows her guilty of that most forgivable of all artistic sins—excessive rigor towards one’s own work.


1/4/04