A contemporary poet, (she is a teacher at NYC’s own Nightingale-Bamford school!) Popova weaves together stories that are deeply embedded in our culture (like the Bible story of Noah and the Ark) with questions that trouble our modern society. By taking on the nameless voice of Noah’s wife, she thinks about action and agency.
You are never mentioned on Ararat
By Maya C Popova
or elsewhere, but I know a woman’s hand
in salvation when I see it. Lately,
I’m torn between despair and ignorance.
I’m not a vegetarian, shop plastic,
use an air conditioner. Is this what happens
before it all goes fluvial? Do the selfish
grow self-conscious by the withering
begonias? Lately, I worry every black dress
will have to be worn to a funeral.
New York a bouillon, eroded filigree.
Anything but illness, I beg the plagues,
but shiny crows or nuclear rain.
Not a drop in London May through June.
I bask in the wilt by golden hour light.
Lately, only lately, it is late. Tucking
our families into the safeties of the past.
My children, will they exist by the time
it’s irreversible? Will they live
astonished at the thought of ice
not pulled from the mouth of a machine?
Which parent will be the one to break
the myth; the Arctic wasn’t Sisyphus’s
snowy hill. Noah’s wife, I am wringing
my hands not knowing how to know
and move forward. Was it you
who gathered flowers once the earth
had dried? How did you explain the light
to all the animals?
- Diction in this poem moves between high (fluvial, bouillon, filigree) and everyday (air-conditioner, vegetarian). What is the impact of this choice?
- What allusions are present in this poem? Why might they be relevant? How is the poet challenging, twisting, or changing them?
- What effect do the questions have in this poem? What about uncertainty? How might you use these notions to tackle a subject that you, yourself, don’t have confident answers for?
- What other noticings and questions do you have?
GREEN & GROW 