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Poems

March 2010

The shrine

by Elizabeth Spires

 I was taken underground     down many flights of stairs
     to a room inside the earth     lit by a sourceless light
where on a rough-hewn pedestal     carved from an ancient tree
     a face stared out at me     stared past me into Time
someone had made the shrine     a woman I thought like me
     her grey hair wild unkempt     as she worked the wood with gold
to make a precious overlay     the shrine a place to kneel
     & pray for continuance     like a g ...

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Elizabeth Spires' new book of poems, The Wave-Maker, was published by Norton in July 2008.


more from this author

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 28 March 2010, on page 25

Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

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