Recently we’ve posted poems by Frank Bidart and Lucie Brock-Broido, two of the nominees for this year’s National Book Award in Poetry. This weekend, we’ll sample poems by the other three nominees, Matt Rasmussen, Mary Szybist, and Adrian Matejka, so that those who have been reading along might be a bit invested in the outcome when the award is announced on November 20th. Our first selection is “X,” from “Elegy in X Parts” by Matt Rasmussen:
I found a small ring
of your black hairin the shower.
It could have beenworn like a laurel
by a moleor hung like a wreath
on death’s tiny door
(From Black Aperture by Matt Rasmussen © 2013 by Matt Rasmussen. Reprinted by permission of Louisiana State University Press. Photo by Phil Roeder)
The Dish 