a found poem: Virginia Woolf’s The Waves

 

He walks across the field
like forlorn light

his magnificence
behind him.

Sheep settle on the rough grass.
The two great elm trees

despise him.
One slovenly cricket

is trooping clumsily
after his long stride

and his heart
is now heavy and yellow.

The wake of a battle
seems to lie

on the long grasses.
This is where

he will die—
he will choose

to buckle.

 

 

Cover Art by Mehrul Bari S. Chowdhury

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Nazifa Islam

Nazifa Islam is the author of the poetry collections Searching for a Pulse (Whitepoint Press, 2013) and Forlorn Light: Virginia Woolf Found Poems (Shearsman Books, 2021). Her poems have appeared in Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The Believer, and Beloit Poetry Journal among other publications. She earned her MFA at Oregon State University. You can find her @nafoopal.

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