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Poetry of Margot Carpenter

Hymn to Process

Stitch by stitch, I knit this sweater,

Wondering if ever it will be done.

I loop and entwine the Prussian blue threads

Till each row’s completed, another begun.

 

Sometimes my fingertips ache to the bone.

Sometimes my eyes grow weary and dim.

But then at the sight of a newly tucked patch,

My work seems to lighten, eyes brighten again.

 

T’will be a fine sweater to keep warmth within with,

To keep my Love’s body from fearing the cold.

T’will be a fine sweater when my work is ended.

I’ll start on another ‘ere this one is old.

Discussing my poem “A Hymn to Process” in a class, Eli Siegel explained its meaning. “To feel something delicate going on all the time,” he said, “is to want to be steady, not change for a bad reason, to be of one mind.”

—Margot Carpenter

© by Margot Carpenter

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