I tap each talk for tonic words,
supply them purport,
build them myths.
Like Icarus,
who stuck on wings with wax.
Had he not flown so close to the heat
on a hot day,
he would have been more sensible.
But the point, as I see it, is not to put
sense first.
Nor is it to teach us not to try to fly.
Every time I feel aurora
infiltrate a common word, I sizzle
with the vigour of disintegrating surfaces.
Questions and Answers
What inspired “In the Conversation as Oracle”?
Here I drew on the Icarus myth to express my thoughts on foolishness and flying, and I created ‘edge’ via syntax and line breaks.
This poem “In the Conversation as Oracle” originally appeared in Women & Poetry. Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 166 (Autumn 2000): 42.
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