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      May 5, 2023Poetic ClosureR.G. Evans

      in memory of Stephen Dunn

      From the title on, the poet said,
      you set up a series of expectations
      within the reader. Then
      you either fulfill or subvert them.
      Poets in ancient China believed
      The words stop but the poem goes on
      like a canoe, its paddles lifted from the water.
      So it is with certain lives.
      We live here in their wake,
      expecting the ripples will never end,
      subverted each time they do.
      Poetic closure consists of reminders
      of where the words have been,
      where they will return,
      and the click at the end
      like a lid lowered into place,
      a sound we expect that still leaves us breathless
      when one’s words end but we go on.

      from #79 - Spring 2023

      R.G. Evans

      “In addition to writing poems, I’m a songwriter as well. There’s something exhilarating about the feeling of performing an original song for an audience and getting immediate, positive feedback—but that feeling is, as Emily Dickinson wrote, ‘How public—like a Frog—.’ Finishing and polishing a pretty good poem and at first (and maybe always) being its only reader is a wicked little pleasure I get to keep all to myself.”

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