It’s not Poetry Monday yet, but we’re posting this sonnet by our reader, Eugene Mahon, because of its timeliness. We’re all still saddened by this loss.
In Honor of Maxine Kumin
IN HONOR OF MAXINE KUMIN
Holding nothing back she wrote each line
Of verse as if it were her last, Frost’s
Advice taken to heart. “Sharpens the mind”
She might have said “to never think of costs
Only values”. A line of verse is worth
Something if it surprises you with what
You thought you knew but didn’t until the birth
Came screaming through your thighs and caught
You unawares. All beauty must surprise
At first before the getting used to. Soon
Enough it becomes essential, life mere lies
Without it. This she knew for sure, a boon
She offered us in words life-seasoned, wise,
A vision’s reach beyond the grasp of eyes.
Eugene Mahon March 9, 2014