This poem is taken from PN Review 258, Volume 47 Number 4, March - April 2021.
‘He Takes Leave of the Sea’ and Other Poems
Reading Is on Your List of Chores
The world is wild and sad, you’re wild and sad
Daughter, and you want only, but you on-
ly want to watch the shows you want
To watch, the worlds you want to watch, to be allowed
To not be told the world
Is none of the worlds you’re watching, none
Of the any worlds that would allow at an-
y moment you to rise and walk away, is none of the worlds you could
Turn from, your head away, by
Leaving it tame it, though it borrows wildness from your fear
And we have told you No
I have, your mother has, Stay here
To read with us, that we will help you understand here, from which you can’t go
That understanding is not taming
He Takes Leave of the Sea
Some work I left undone, angers, the sea
That will not get a mention on my stone
...
The world is wild and sad, you’re wild and sad
Daughter, and you want only, but you on-
ly want to watch the shows you want
To watch, the worlds you want to watch, to be allowed
To not be told the world
Is none of the worlds you’re watching, none
Of the any worlds that would allow at an-
y moment you to rise and walk away, is none of the worlds you could
Turn from, your head away, by
Leaving it tame it, though it borrows wildness from your fear
And we have told you No
I have, your mother has, Stay here
To read with us, that we will help you understand here, from which you can’t go
That understanding is not taming
He Takes Leave of the Sea
Some work I left undone, angers, the sea
That will not get a mention on my stone
...
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