NATIONAL POETRY DAY FOCUS ON ROBERT PRIEST

It is National Poetry Day in the UK. To celebrate, I want to offer readers a poem from the significant Canadian poet Robert Priest's new collection, Previously Feared Darkness. It is a collection I will be reviewing here before long. For now, enjoy.

Robert Priest, Previously Feared Poet

When Churchill flashed his famous V sign
It wasn’t for victory
As everyone says
It was for vagina
For he knew
What I know
That there is still not enough praise
For the vagina
He knew that if anything is miraculous
The relation between the inside of the vagina
And the outside of the penis
Is

Nixon knew it too

Even as he resigned
Even as he turned to face the music
Of his own destiny
He flashed that last V
But my friends
It was not a sign of peace
It was Nixon’s way of saying
That the inside of the vagina
Is as numinous as it gets

This secret is well known
The vagina is a sign
Without which not a single holy thing
May be written

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