Elizabeth Savage, featured in the Ocean State Review

William Morris, Wrapped in Brown Paper

It was not beauty that broke—surfaces
or lovely girlhood. Under the roff, between
walls, pasted closer to her, each layer
a rippling nearer—saving the world

from shoddy goods, a world overwhelmed
by greed & garbage. Economy—for an instance—
lightning flashing over the stairs, years
of colors, tones, salts—more intricate
for sorrow’s margin. She could see what she lacked.

For in Marriage

A little license, a little independence
needed to breathe—the perpetual sense
of swimming far out to sea—

Necessary declaratives, simplicity
“They are not lonely” “That is all” “Nothing—
in another page”—like measured, sharpened

stakes could hold the tent of sea, caught
& billowing—

Elizabeth Savage on “William Morris, Wrapped in Brown Paper” and “For in Marriage“:

“William Morris, Wrapped in Brown Paper” and “For in Marriage” are from a lectio divina of Mrs. Dalloway, my second favorite book ever. I hadn’t read Mrs. Dalloway in years, as if saving up for a special occasion or an emergency—I wanted to linger and live in it, so I read and reread 5 pages at a time until I found an entrance that brought a poem. When I was finished, I missed the book so much I read Michael Cunningham’s The Hours again—it had also been many years—another beautiful book and a testament to the way art ought to work, which is to make more art.

Elizabeth Savage is the poetry editor of Kestrel: A Journal of Literature & Art. Recent creative and critical work appears in Allium, Humanities, and Poetics Today. For more information visit her website: https://elizabethasavage.com/