Erin

ErinPart for the Whole
POEM VIEWS: 8174

Robert Francis (1901-1987) was born in Upland, Pennsylvania, and studied at Harvard. Although hErine taught at workshops and lectured at [|universities]. . . [|**MORE**] »

By Robert Francis

//When others run to windows or out of doors// //To catch the sunset whole, he is content// //With any segment anywhere he sits.// //From segment, fragment, he can reconstruct// //The whole, prefers to reconstruct the whole,// //As if to say, I see more seeing less.// //A window to the east will serve as well// //As window to the west, for eastern sky// //Echoes the western sky. And even less—// A patch of light that picture-glass happens To catch from window-glass, fragment of fragment, Flawed, distorted, dulled, nevertheless Gives something unglassed nature cannot give: The old obliquity of [|art], and proves Part may be more than whole, least may be best.

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The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; but I hung on like death: such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf; my mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle; at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt, then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt.