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Melanie Bettinelli's avatar

I love how the second line of each couplet complicates or shades the meaning of the first line and how the poem builds from one couplet to another, feeling a little like stream of consciousness, but also like a subtle argument. And there's a kind of movement from the solitary contemplation of work to contemplations about relationships and community, and yet at the same time the movement also seems to be from the outward focus towards the heart of things. And almost a movement from the concrete towards the more abstract ideas, but even those abstractions are rooted in concrete details. A simple form and yet it really takes you on a journey.

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Ann Collins's avatar

The "ands" work so beautifully here--great choice, Brian. Love all these intermingling layers of texture and feeling. We can't separate the difficult from the sublime, can we? Everything belongs.

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