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PN Review 275
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This poem is taken from PN Review 100, Volume 21 Number 2, November - December 1994.

Six Poems Denise Riley

Poem Beginning with a Line from Proverbs
As iron sharpens iron
I sharpen the face of my friend
so hard he sings out
in high delicate notes.

A struggle for mastery to most speak
powerful beauty would run any
attention or kindness clean out
of town in angry rags.

Ringed by darkness the heart pulsates.
And power comes in like lightning.
A lion in the room, fair and flowing
twists with unsparing eyes.

Whitely the glance runs
to it and away. But let it
talk its golden talk if we
...


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