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This poem is taken from PN Review 156, Volume 30 Number 4, March - April 2004.

Three Poems Dawn Wood

Outline
for Sue Harris

I am trying to represent mountains
but the scales of these things fluctuate

and they adjust into new configurations
as the air does, when it is layered by warmth
or light by water.

I am told that they can only be described
by tackling the human conversations
they surround.

I am told that pregnant ewes
curdle words in their throats
in preparation for their newborns.

So, perhaps, do mountains.

I am writing to represent mountains.
They have capacity for a great love.
...


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