11-2-2017 (by Mitch Sisskind)

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November 02, 2017

11-2-2017 (by Mitch Sisskind)

One class of problems –
Math people will attest
to this – can be clearly
Articulated whereupon
It only remains for an
Answer to be found
Or never to be found
But finding the answer
Is of small significance
And even of sad banality
Relative to the problem’s
Articulated clarity which
Inherently demotes it to
A purgatory of minor interest.

Another class of problem
Ghostly and insinuating
Can’t be rendered in words
Or symbols but you definitely
Know it’s there, you feel it
As something very wrong
With you but what? What?
You try to find words for it
Or to create a mental image
For this problem in intimate
Conversations or before sleep
And if it occurs to you that
You might not awaken --
Or is that the problem at last?

Posted by Mitch Sisskind on November 02, 2017 at 06:40 PM in Mitch Sisskind - Correspondent at Large | Permalink

Comments

I found myself nodding my head in agreement and sleep. -- DL

Posted by: The Best American Poetry | November 04, 2017 at 02:06 PM

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"Lively and affectionate" Publishers Weekly

Radio

I left it
on when I
left the house
for the pleasure
of coming back
ten hours later
to the greatness
of Teddy Wilson
"After You've Gone"
on the piano
in the corner
of the bedroom
as I enter
in the dark

from New and Selected Poems by David Lehman