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June 05, 2022

Comments

Exquisite, tender, smart poem. Love it!

"Words have that kind of power." Thank you Emily Fragos for including us in this beautiful and universal lament. The clothes that make the man. The living clothes. Guardians of energy, of breath, of memory.

Love and Poetry

Indran Amirthanayagam
Publisher, Beltway Editions
(www.beltwayeditions.com)

I love this poem! And it also makes me think of all the Goodwill, thrift, Salvation Army clothes...the tenderness of those who came before and wore them. And where these clothes will go..."Do with us what you will..."

Lovely. Sometimes the simple and otherwise overused word "sad" is the most perfect for a poem that speaks this directly. Thanx, Emily & Terence

This poem is perfect for its purity, dignity, sweetness, and surprise. Emily Fragos is one of my favorite poets for this reason. And one of America's Best Poets! Her colors are just right, not too bright and not too pale. She gives us the center of poetry, where it is truest.

Straight to the heart.

Emily Fragos has perfectly captured loss in her very moving poem. The accompanying painting is equally perfect.

Yes, this combination of art and poetry is superb! Bravo!

Such a perfect image--the clothes that "cannot get warm and full"--to capture grief. Stunning.

solace, i remember when...

Great poem Great painting

Wonderful poem and painting! As in so much of Emily’s beautiful work, the poem transcends its sadness.

This poem touched my heart!

Exquisite limning of an experience that becomes, at some point, all but universal. For me it was going through some of the personal effects of my father, especially his shoes, worn just so by walking miles and miles, walking he would never do again.

What a great imagery for a life to go! I was deeply moved to read this GREAT poem!! Thank you so much for awakening me!!

I adored this poem by Emily F. It captures all of the grief when someone has gone. There is no tragedy, only loneliness and loss remain.

The poem moves as if effortless, as if without artifice. The clothes speak after having been spoken to, and what they say is true. The clothes will have nothing to do with transcendence or battle. Emily sees their fidelity, their stubbornly folded arms. She hears the clothes speak. She writes it down, and I want to cry, her tenderness is so startlingly sharp.

Clothes as words, words as weapons against the inexorability of time. Beautiful.

A new and intelligent way to express grief, which through its art joins forces with beauty.

Using clothes to express grief is brilliant and at the same time heart rending.



Jack: Thanks for the comment.

I grabbed the cuff of my shirt remembering them.

Now I know why I kept and wear so many of my beloved mother's clothes, now overwhelming my closet, and why I sent a package of my deceased husband's ties across the country to our only son. I didn't want them to be sad!
I felt so much of this poem, dear Emily.

Lovely lovely elegy. Thank you.

The comments have such emotion and grace that they are like an extension of the poem itself, which is so expressive and so clear and so readily seen as true even though we likely never expressed its feeling so beautifully ourselves.

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Cover
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That Ship Has Sailed
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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

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