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This poem is taken from PN Review 37, Volume 10 Number 5, March - April 1984.

Modernist Verbs Jennifer McMahon

Catching the. tones of voice at turn of tide;
Catching the metre in which minds confide;
Catching the breath as Europe tilted and the lives began to slide.

Cracking the mould to let the germins loose;
Cracking Buddha's repose; the Druids' truce;
Cracking the whip as sickles curtsey round the shock slumped in its
  noose.

Picking the flower called love-in-idleness;
...


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