Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton,
took her own life in the 1970's. Her challenging sensual but hard-edged poetry is a source of endless fascination for me. Click on her name above the poem to learn more about her.I love the sensations I get from her unusual imagery! Her renowned work inspired me to start feeling farther outside my comfort zone in painting poetic images. - Ray
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THE KISS
by Anne Sexton
My mouth blooms like a cut.
I've been wronged all year, tedious
nights, nothing but rough elbows in them
and delicate boxes of Kleenex calling CRYBABY
CRYBABY, YOU FOOL!
Before today my body was useless.
Now it's tearing at its square corners.
It's tearing old Mary's garments off, knot by knot
and see--Now it's shot full of these electric bolts.
Zing! A resurrection!
Once it was a boat, quite wooden
and with no business, no salt water under it
and in need of some paint. It was no more
than a group of boards. But you hoisted her, rigged her.
She's been elected.
My nerves are turned on. I hear them like
musical instruments. Where there was silence
the drums, the strings are incurably playing. You did this.
Pure genius at work. Darling, the composer has stepped
in fire.
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