Let Me Make This Perfectly Clear

Gwendolyn MacEwen

From: Afterworlds. McClelland & Stewart, 1987

Let me make this perfectly clear.

I have never written anything because it is a Poem.

This is a mistake you always make about me,

A dangerous mistake. I promise you

I am not writing this because it is a Poem.



You suspect this is a posture or an act

I am sorry to tell you it is not an act.



You actually think I care if this

Poem gets off the ground or not. Well

I don't care if this poem gets off the ground or not

And neither should you.

All I have every cared about

And all you should ever care about

Is what happens when you lift your eyes from this page.



Do not think for one minute it is the Poem that matters.

Is is not the Poem that matters.

You can shove the Poem.

What matters is what is out there in the large dark

and in the long light,

Breathing.







Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6 | Poem 7

Gwendolyn MacEwen's works copyright © to the Estate of Gwendolyn MacEwen.

The information provided here is by permission of David MacKinnon, executor for The Estate of Gwendolyn MacEwen.