Here are three achingly poignant yet transgressive poems frommy old friend Karen Mulhallen, yes, dear friend, extraordinary woman-of-letters, poet, Blake scholar, and publisher and editor of the amazing Toronto-based literary magazine Descant (this summer’s issue marks the magazine’s 40th anniversary). Karen has published close to a dozen books of poems, the latest, her selected poems entitled Acquainted With Absence, published in 2009, was edited and introduced by dg (see poems from that book published earlier on NC). These new poems are from Karen’s forthcoming collection, The Pillow Books (forthcoming 2011 with Black Moss Press).
dg
February/Raise High The Red Lantern
He is coming. Raise it high
My red lantern burns in the bright light of day
disappearing in the glare of the sun.
in the evening the lantern of the Other Wife
bursts through the darkness.
Her light more brilliant than any other lantern.
I am the Daylight Wife.
Take my light.
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