Poem of the Day

Reticent Sonnet
by Anne Carson

A pronoun is a kind of withdrawal from naming.
Because naming is heavy, naming may be slightly shaming.
We live much more lightly than this,
we address ourselves allusively in our minds -
as "..." or "we" or "one" -part of a system
that argues with shadow, like Venetian blinds.
Speaking of Venice, called "the Shakespeare of cities" by a friend of mine,
reminds me how often the Sonnets misprint "their" for "thine":
beware the fog in Venice.

Beware those footsteps that stop in a hush.
I used to think I would grow up to be a person whose reasoning was deep,
instead I became a kind of brush.
I brush words against words. So do we follow ourselves out of youth.
brushing, brushing, brushing wild grapes onto truth.