Melissa Carl
Poem as a Last Resort
This is the poem that sticks to the roof of the mouth, the poem made of hesitation. No steady rain or delivered newspapers. This poem wants to get complicated. But it doesn’t know the French word for longing, so it will have to settle for the exact sadness of wind chimes and the sepulchral fists of fallen pears. It will never gather its love into civilized roses. It can only bring its pretenses along – a linger of sage and sunlit dust, the anemia it desires to be rid of. This poem recites what it knows of the night’s grimoire – the grievous cold and shadows, the sullen aristocracy of owls. It ignores death entirely, as it has other things to dread: This poem knows it is an accidental husk, a mere hour between others’ wants and sleep, a ruined window considering the light.
Melissa Carl has published poetry in various journals and won numerous regional awards and prizes, including two consecutive first-place awards in the YorkArts Museum WritersEye competition. She recently appeared on Berks County Public Television for the program "Poets Pause." "Proof," the title poem of her first published collection, was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was a finalist in the national Late Blooms Competition. She resides in York, Pennsylvania and Oak Island, North Carolina with her husband and son.
