Lamentation (Martha Graham, 1930)
What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? Lamentations 2:13

Wordless, ceaseless,
a second, seamless skin,
this blue refrain

sings of comfort,
camouflage, the rarest
right - to remain

faceless, featureless,
the barest rune of ruin:
a chessboard pawn

that rears up into a castle
then topples in defeat,
an exposed vein

on a stretched-out throat
pulsing frantically
as if to drain

unwanted thoughts
into the body's reservoir-
an inky stain

bluer than blushing,
truer than trusting,
the shadow zone

at the core of the flame-
too intense, too airless
to long remain

enveloped, as if
a moth lured to the light
were trapped, sewn

back in its cocoon,
the way the pitiless
mind goes on

shapemaking-
gamma, lambda, chi-
a linked chain

of association no less
binding for being silken,
a fine-meshed net thrown

over the exhausted
animal-having given up
its vague, vain

efforts to escape,
and now struggling
simply to sustain

a show of resistance,
to extend a limb toward
extremity, to glean

one glimpse of light,
one gasp of air, then folding
inward, diving down

into the blue pool
at the body's hollow center,
there to float, and drown.



About this poem
"This poem is based on Martha Graham's iconic dance solo 'Lamentation' (1930), a portrait of a grieving woman with a score by Zoltan Kodaly. The dancer, seated on a bench, is entrapped in a knitted tube of stretchy blue fabric with only her face, hands, and feet visible. This poem is part of the title series of my forthcoming book, 'Blackacre,' a term which lawyers use to designate a hypothetical parcel of land, along with its variants: Whiteacre, Blueacre, Greenacre, etc."
-Monica Youn

About Monica Youn

***
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2016 Monica Youn. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate