poems from Archive of Style:

New and Selected Poems - Cheryl Clarke

depth in a two dimensional space

background middle

fore

blur details: cooler colors

more detail: color more intense warm colors

complement next to complement to stand out

make grayer blue orange red green yellow purple cold far away warm close up

and the many shades of gray

assignment: still life in warm colors remember: more water than pigment

Reckless Domesticity

I am a reckless locked door. Can’t be kept from jumping out a window. Runaway six months. Justus hid me in his master’s carriage house ten miles down the road.

I felt good. When the patrollers caught me and brought me back, Miss Zen beat me hard but not hard enough

to keep me from running again.

Running until I run far enough

to get free. Free is a worrisome thing to get even when you get there.

And get there can I live in it?