Carolyn Forché

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Carolyn Forché has read for the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series on numerous occasions: November 17, 1981, March 2, 1991, January 24, 1995, May 4, 1999, and on December 11, 2006 for the Emily Dickinson Birthday Tribute.

Carolyn Forché

Forché is the author of Blue Hour, Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness, The Angel of History, The Country Between Us, and Gathering the Tribes. The contemplation of life's reserved moments found in Emily Dickinson's work is also found in Carolyn Forché's graceful and strong poetry. Forché resurrects history's quiet details and allows them to resonate in the ears of her readers.

Visit her Poetry Foundation page for more information.

from On Earth

at once in this world and the world to come

at the city’s edge the aged cooling towers

at the edge of a forest once for making violins

at the end of their journey, the petals they carry vanish

at the end, where they carry his body

at the point where language stops

From Blue Hour by Carolyn Forché, copyright © 2003, printed by HarperCollins Books. Used with permission.