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This poem is taken from PN Review 61, Volume 14 Number 5, May - June 1988.

The House of Words Elizabeth Jennings

It is a house you visit but don't stay
For long. Words leap from hedges. Verbs and nouns
Ask for a sentence where they'll fit and say

What you were unaware you thought. A dance
Of meanings happens in your head. You start
To learn a melody you half-heard once

But can't remember wholly. Now verbs sort
Themselves from nouns, and adjectives insist
...


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