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Column 924

The Library of Babel

12.05.2022

Ali­son C. Rollins man­ages, in this strik­ing poem, to con­tain the anx­i­ety of those fac­ing sight­less­ness, and the urgency they feel to try to pre­serve in mem­o­ry, that which is fleet­ing. For her, the poem is a solace, for when spo­ken, it pro­longs sight even for blind poets like Jorge Luis Borges. If we think of sight as more than just phys­i­cal, we may get a glimpse of what Rollins may be say­ing in The Library of Babel,” about one of the pecu­liar pur­pos­es of art.

The Library of Babel

While there is still some light 
on the page, I am writing now 
a history of snow, of everything 
that has been and will be thought. 
When a blind poet says I need you
to be my eyes
, they are asking to see 
through your mouth.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2019 by Alison C. Rollins, “The Library of Babel” from Library of Small Catastrophes (Copper Canyon Press, 2019.)  Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.