At first sight muffled silence
at first sight the immanence of night
at first sight colors advance
at first sight water-flowers droop
at first sight all logic withers
at first sight you see and hear
at first sight you forget everything
at first sight you start to dream
at first sight charred forests
at first sight all the fragrances of the earth
at first sight nebulae
at first sight flooded in rain and sunlight
at first sight bloodless wind
at first sight devastated lands
at first sight the rose stripped of dreams
at first sight I don’t know what I’m hearing
at first sight I don’t know what I’m seeing
at first sight it’s a reality sandwich
at first sight lacerated poetry
at first sight it’s chock-a-block full
at first sight it’s the four seasons
at first sight it’s this and that
at first sight it’s surrounded with foam and gas
at first sight rocks heave
at first sight a blueish equinox
at first sight a hole in the mist
at first sight every image is presented
at first sight the eye escapes
at first sight the last “reefer”
at first sight light breathes
at first sight in the hollow of summer
at first sight a forget-me-not and true solitude
at first sight the world such as it is
at first sight a world such as it ain’t
at first sight reaching the sky
at first sight a desert island
at first sight a cataclysm
at first sight all the voices
at first sight the world’s song
at first sight and then nothing
at first sight the shadows’ great wind
at first sight dawn’s disorder
at first sight clean and jerk
at first sight raga-tantra
at first sight everything brimming with silence
at first sight a rich and good painting
at first sight while repainting the sky and the night
Sharon Olds
The I is Made of Paper
The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Sharon Olds discusses sex, religion, and writing poems that “women were definitely not supposed to write,” in an excerpt from her Art of Poetry interview with Jessica Laser. Olds also reads three of her poems: “Sisters of Sexual Treasure” (issue no. 74, Fall–Winter 1978), “True Love,” and “The Easel.”
This episode was produced and sound-designed by John DeLore. The audio recording of “Sisters of Sexual Treasure” is courtesy of the Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University.
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