Poets Corner: The Hardest Thing

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The Hardest Thing

The hardest thing is diamond,

Which in nature has all the charm

Of a pebble on the beach.

For such a one to fulminate

And carry light inside,

It must be cut, again and yet again

By the only thing that can—

Another diamond

In precisely angled facetry.

That is not an easeful discipline,

And has a hardness all its own.

For there are fracture planes

That must be borne in mind

While the cutting’s done,

As otherwise, you’ll just wind up

With very pricy dust. Just so

Alignment’s learned. For hard on hard

Is simply not enough;

Well behind the cleaving blow

Lies a very soft esteem.

Gerald Blake Storrow lives in Cambridge and Chilmark, and is another satisfied customer of Nancy Slonim Aronie’s Writing from the Heart workshops. If she hadn’t been around, he says, he would never have written anything.

The Martha’s Vineyard Times welcomes contributions to Poet’s Corner. Dan Waters, former poet laureate of West Tisbury, will select poems to be published here. Submissions should be directed to dan@indianhillpress.com.