Guidelines



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Saturday, November 17, 2012

INSTRUCTIONS

by Laurie Lamon

Image source: Mind Maps


Put them into the scissors’ ovals made for making
parts; fold them into the shape of the bird
crossing a wall, then vanishing into light’s room.
Let one warm the face turned on its side;
let one come to the breast as a sleepwalker touches
a door. Let them both envy the tongue.            
Let them count money like miseries that close
the eyes. Have them write in pencil the forty-two
resolutions against Israel. Have them handle
and return the identity cards of those who are here
and not here. Let them ease the burdens of smoke.
Instruct them to scatter straw, earth’s estate
to be carried in the mouths of the smallest animals.



Laurie Lamon's work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Criterion, PloughsharesArts & Letters Journal of Contemporary Culture, Plume, and other magazines and journals, including 180 More Extraordinary Poems for Ordinary Days, edited by Billy Collins, and thePoetry Daily and Verse Daily websites. In 2007 Lamon received a Witter Bynner award, selected by Poet Laureate Donald Hall. Lamon has also received a Pushcart Prize. Laurie Lamon has two collections of poetry are The Fork Without Hunger and Without Wings, CavanKerry Press (NJ), 2005 and 2009. Lamon is a professor of English at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington and the poetry editor for Rock & Sling.