Linda Pastan

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Self-portrait Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AA B CDEFGHIBJKLKBMNMBOEP BQRQBPBBBSTUVWEX

A
A
-
-
-
-
-
-
After Adam ZagajewskiB
-
-
-
I am child to no one mother to a fewC
wife for the long haulD
On fall days I am happyE
with my dying brethren the leavesF
but in spring my head achesG
from the flowery scentsH
My husband fills a room with MozartI
which I turn off embracingB
the silence as if it were an empty pageJ
waiting for me alone to fill itK
He digs in the black earthL
with his bare hands I scrub itK
from the creases of his skin longingB
for the kind of perfectionM
that happens in booksN
My house is my only heavenM
A red dog sleeps at my feet dreamingB
of the manic wings of flushed birdsO
As the road shortens ahead of meE
I look over my shoulderP
to where it curves backB
to childhood its white lineQ
bisecting the real and the imaginedR
the way the ridgepole of the spineQ
divides the two parts of the body leavingB
the soft belly in the centerP
vulnerable to anythingB
As for my country it blunders alongB
as well intentioned as Eve choosingB
cider and windfalls obliviousS
to the famine soon to comeT
I stir pots bury my face in books or holdU
a telephone to my ear as if its cordV
were the umbilicus of the worldW
whose voices still whisper to meE
even after they have left their bodiesX

Linda Pastan



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