#MIDDLEBURY
Blueacre
Monica Youn
Lamentation (Martha Graham, 1930)
What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? Lamentations 2:13
Wordless, ceaseless,
a second, seamless skin,
this blue refrain
sings of comfort,
camouflage, the rarest
right – to remain
faceless, featureless,
the barest rune of ruin:
a chessboard pawn
that rears up into a castle
then topples in defeat,
an exposed vein
on a stretched-out throat
pulsing frantically
as if to drain
unwanted thoughts
into the body’s reservoir-
an inky stain
bluer than blushing,
truer than trusting,
the shadow zone
at the core of the flame –
too intense, too airless
to long remain
enveloped, as if
a moth lured to the light
were trapped, sewn
back in its cocoon,
the way the pitiless
mind goes on
shapemaking –
gamma, lambda, chi –
a linked chain
of association no less
binding for being silken,
a fine-meshed net thrown
over the exhausted
animal-having given up
its vague, vain
efforts to escape,
and now struggling
simply to sustain
a show of resistance,
to extend a limb toward
extremity, to glean
one glimpse of light,
one gasp of air, then folding
inward, diving down
into the blue pool
at the body’s hollow center,
there to float, and drown.
About this poem
“This poem is based on Martha Graham’s iconic dance solo ‘Lamentation’ (1930), a portrait of a grieving woman with a score by Zoltan Kodaly. The dancer, seated on a bench, is entrapped in a knitted tube of stretchy blue fabric with only her face, hands, and feet visible. This poem is part of the title series of my forthcoming book, ‘Blackacre,’ a term which lawyers use to designate a hypothetical parcel of land, along with its variants: Whiteacre, Blueacre, Greenacre, etc.” – Monica Youn
About Monica Youn
Monica Youn is the author of “Blackacre” (Graywolf Press, 2016). She teaches at Princeton University and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College and lives in Manhattan.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
(c) 2016 Monica Youn. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
