Poetry May 2008 Atlantic Monthly

by Brooks Haxton

Cuneiform

Article Tools

E-mail Article
Printer Format

The wedge sank five times into the clay,
and a word, which had been spoken in a breath,
lay still until the gods’ names were forgotten.
Then, when strangers took the tile in hand,
while stars sailed into the dark
beyond the world, the dead tongue
in the clay began to speak.

Brooks Haxton's new collection of poems, They Lift Their Wings to Cry, will be published in June. He teaches at Syracuse University.

Article Tools

E-mail Article
Printer Format

What do you think? Discuss this article in Post & Riposte.

Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter.

Also By

Brooks Haxton

Fiction Issue

Datura

July/August 2004

Gift


Name

Address 1

Address 2

City

State Zip

Email

Atlantic Voices

Instajamas Read more

14 May 2008 08:03 A.M.

Mississippi Read more

14 May 2008 03:05 A.M.

Harry The Overrated Read more

13 May 2008 7:39 P.M.

Peccavi nimis cogitatione, verbo et opere: mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa Read more

13 May 2008 7:31 P.M.

Obama Will Pick Up Several More Super-Ds Today Read more

14 May 2008 07:34 A.M.

Masses, and individuals, in China Read more

14 May 2008 02:45 A.M.

The Honorable Mr. Boehner (II) Read more

13 May 2008 4:45 P.M.

Pause Read more

02 May 2008 7:21 P.M.