Teaching Poetry at the School for the Blind
Their struggle to meet the image in the dark
is one we know-the storms, the hesitation-
but the shifting bridge they walk between idea
and braille's brief physical translation
reveals the sometimes lightness of our thoughts,
our casual groping for a better word,
as easy, slight as calling to our love
or remembering the chorus of a song we heard.
—Chelsea Rathburn
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From The Shifting Line (University of Evansville Press, 2005)
Unused Lines
While words we pamper and protect
march off in search of meager fame,
these lines like bastard kids collect,
skulking through our notes in shame,
the discards of our intellect,
false starts, limp rhymes, feet bruised and lame,
condemned to suffer in neglect,
half-breeds that we refuse to name
for fear they'll prove what we suspect:
the damned and saved are much the same.
—Chelsea Rathburn
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From The Shifting Line (University of Evansville Press, 2005)