Poet

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I am promised
I have taken the veil
I have made my obeisance
I have walked on words of nails
to knock on silences
I have tokened the veil
to my face
mouth covered with symbol
I have punctured my finger nails
to fill one thimble
with blood for consecration
in a nunnery
I have found each station
of the cross and to each place
have verbs tossed free, to compass the bitter male
in this changed chancellery
and I have paced four walls
for the word, and I have heard
curiously, I have heard the tallest of mouths
call down behind my veil
to limit or enlargen me
as I or it prevails.
*******
Phyllis Webb (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 8 April 1927).
◙ Artwork: Odilon Redon

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