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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Volkman
Karen Volkman
Poet Karen Volkman was the recipient of the James Laughlin Award and the Iowa Poetry Prize...
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FURTHER READING
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Sonnet [Nothing was ever what it claimed to be,]

 
by Karen Volkman

Nothing was ever what it claimed to be,
the earth, blue egg, in its seeping shell
dispensing damage like a hollow hell
inchling weeping for a minor sea

ticking its tidelets, x and y and z.
The blue beneficence we call and spell
and call blue heaven, the whiteblue well
of constant water, deepening a thee,

a thou and who, touching every what—
and in the or, a shudder in the cut—
and that you are, blue mirror, only stare

bluest blankness, whether in the where,
sheen that bleeds blue beauty we are taught
drowns and booms and vowels.  I will not.





Audio Clip
May 13, 2008
The Academy Offices
From the Academy Audio Archive



From Nomina by Karen Volkman. Copyright © 2008 by Karen Volkman. Reprinted by permission of B.O.A. Editions. All rights reserved.
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