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POET'S CHOICE

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life outside the walls of our bedroom.

The hand erasing writes the real thing,

and I am trying. I loved life and see now

this was a weakness. I loved the little

births and deaths occurring in us daily.

Even the white spit on your sharp teeth

was the foam of love, saying to me: It is not true,

after all, that you were never loved.

In both poems, the final line and a half works a little like a Shakespearean sonnet's couplet, resolving or summarizing mingled feelings of hurt and redemption.

(Henri Cole's poems "Oil & Steel" and "Self-Portrait with Red Eyes" are from his book "Blackbird and Wolf." Farrar Straus Giroux.

Robert Pinsky's most recent book of poetry is "Jersey Rain."

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