Greg Williamson

Greg Williamson Poems

Greg Williamson Biography

Greg Williamson grew up in Nashville, Tn. His first book, The Silent Partner, won the Nicholas Roerich Prize in 1995. His second book, Errors in the Script, was runner-up for the NYC Poet's Prize. He has received a Whiting Award, an NEA grant, and an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other honors. He teaches in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University.)

The Best Poem Of Greg Williamson

White

“Only when we kick the habit of mind
Which sees in pictures little corners of nature,
Madonnas, shameless Venuses shall we find
A work of living art, ” saith the lecture,

And you, the hack, the scribbler, with your dumb grin
Of sentiment, sign, self, the vulgar heart
Of content, tint, text, were complicit in
The well-patinaed, off-white lies of art

Until in your clean (last) white shirt so chic
Down here, through reams of winters, you pursue
Your final undertaking, to ghostwrite
In air, a palimpsest of pure technique,
Stripped of allusion, mediation, you:
Moonlight on Snow with Wind in White
on White.

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