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This poem is taken from PN Review 163, Volume 31 Number 5, May - June 2005.

From Alphabet and The Valley of the Butterflies (translated by Alex Middleton) Inger Christensen


From Alphabet

1
apricot trees exist, apricot trees exist


2
bracken exists; and blackberries, blackberries
and bromine exists; and hydrogen, hydrogen


3
cicadas exist; chicory, chrome
and citrus trees; cicadas exist;
cicadas, cedar, cypress, cerebellum


4
doves exist; dreams, dolls
death-bringers exist; doves, doves;
haze, dioxin and days; days
exist; days death; and poems
exist; poems, days, death

...


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