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      July 26, 2022Anna EvansFeeling Compassion For Others

      after Molly Peacock

      Feeling compassion for others is the right
      way to feel. It’s one way we can prove
      to friends we’ve finally grown up, when it might
      be tempting–human, even–to lord it above
      someone instead. At twenty when I stole
      a boy my best friend had adored for months
      I was quite insufferable. I told
      her she needed a hobby. That’s how to punch
      a girl when she’s down. I think I would do better
      now, but really, would I? When you’ve won
      something intangible, you never get a
      ribbon, only the pleasure of seeing the wan
      face, and hearing the loser mourn the loss.
      I suppose I’m trying to say that I don’t blame you:
      to hear the mitigating facts could cost
      just what it costs to write this and not name you.

      from #28 - Winter 2007

      Anna M. Evans

      “I’m not lying when I call my blog ‘Dreaming in Iambic Pentameter’ either. However, I always write my defenses of formalist poems in free verse. I just want my readers to be moved by my poems, and that isn’t a quality guaranteed by meter any more than it is by a good line break.”