• Dearly by Margaret Atwood

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• "And birds. There are more birds in these poems than there used to be. I wish for even more birds in the next book of poems, should there be one; and I wish also for more birds in the world. Let us all hope."

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• "It's late, it's very late; / too late for dancing. / Still, sing what you can. / Turn up the light: sing on, / sing: On."
• "Were things good then? / Yes. They were good. / Did you know they were good? / At the time? Your time? / No, because I was worrying / or maybe hungry / or asleep, half of those hours. / Once in a while there was a pear or plum / or a cup with something in it, / or a white curtain, rippling, / or else a hand."
• "The clock ticks and the day shrivels. / Dusk sifts down on us. / How long should I stay?"
• "your body of a deer or martyr."
• "If birds are human souls / What bird are you? / A spring bird with a joyful song? / A high flyer? / Are you an evening bird / watching the moon / Singing Alone, Alone, / Singing Dead Too Soon?"
• "If you were a song / What song would you be? / Would you be the voice that sings, / Would you be the music? / When I am singing this song for you / You are not empty air. "
• "These were the kinds of stories / we used to tell. They were comforting in a way / because they said / everyone has to be somewhere. / But the dear ones, where are they? / Where? Where? After a while / You sound like a bird. / You stop, but the sorrow goes on calling."
• "Cathedral ceilings, opened up / to the stars, to the stark."
• "Stay dead! Stay dead! you conjure, / you who wanted the past back. / Nothing doing. The creature / ambles through the dim forest, / a red, weeping monosyllable, / a smeared word tasting of sorrow. "
• "Walking in the madman's wood / over the disquieted dry shushing leaves / in early spring. / The madman loved this wildland / once, before his brain / turned lacework. Must have been / him (when?) who put / this round stone here, topping / the mossy oblong. Mine. / And all the tin can / lids and wooden squares, / rough-painted red and nailed to trees / to mark his line: / mine, mine, mine, mine. / -- / You could get waylaid here, or slip amazed / into your tangled head. You could / just not come back."
• "One by handfuls the feathers fell. / Windsheer, sunbleach, owlwar, / some killer with a shotgun, / who can tell? / But I found them here on the quasi-lawn — / I don't know whose torn skin — / calligraphy of wrecked wings, / remains of a god that melted / too near the moon. / A high flyer once, / as we all were. / Every life is a failure / at the last hour. "
• "So, Nature. We sit around it, / chew it into rags / with our artful fangs and talons. / Spoons, however: / there are no spoons in Nature, / or not on animals. / We imitate ourselves. / Here, let me help you: / two cupped hands. "
• " Everything was real, / but didn't always love you. "
• "Though it broke its tusks on your heart / your heart of a heron / that's harder and has more teeth / than anything here."
• "One note might be (she said) / to pull back somewhat / from exhortation and despair / Instead (she said) / try to provide / an experiential under / understanding of human / human (she said) impact / human pact / then let people / let people come / let people come to their own / conclusions. / Own their conclusions. / She said: / There is some danger in this."
• " In there, what will you wish for? "
• "What is it he forgot / this last time? / I don't mean the keys, the hat. / I mean his tawny days, / the sun, the golden running. / All of our furry dancing. / It returns to him in flashes, / but then what? Then regret / because we're not. / There's birdsong, however, / from birds whose names have vanished. / Birds don't need them, those lost names. / We needed them, but that was then. / Now, who cares? / Lions don't know they are lions. "
• "the shape of an absence / in your place at the table, / sitting across from me, / eating toast and eggs as usual."
• "I'll act as if I am busy. / But none of this will defend me."
• "Well anyway / I held your hand and maybe / you held mine. "
• "But if you're now disenchanted, / who enchanted you, back then? / What magus or sorceress cast over you / the net of words, the charm? / Placed the scroll in your golem's / mouth of mud?"
• " But I don't like stones around my neck. "

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• "And when I go that way, grow fur, start howling, / scratch at your airwaves: / no matter who I claim I am / or how I love you, / turn the key. Bar the window."