Augustan Sunset: The Masters; A Homage to Marianne Moore
By Fan Ogilvie
I too dislike it
Reading it however
With a perfect contempt for it
One discovers in it
A place for the comma,
A genuine pause in the verse
Borrowed from the birds
Who can’t sing throughout
The hours of the Masters
Without an avian stop.
Augustan wings chirp
Over the Edenic course.
Pine trees, walks of impatiens,
Begonias, blooming azaleas
Or dogwoods, more false than real
But real enough to fool the eye
Like the “green” grass, scissor’s cut,
Small upright yellow flags
Blowing in green jacket air:
Imagine “a garden for real toads.”
There is magic in the arc
Of a Titleist ball against
All blue, all sky.
The ball falls through shadows
Of the pines, drops on pristine fairway,
Sand trap, putting green or ruff.
The best players like poets
Play in shadows of the pines
Against raw talent of the pack:
The genuine in this artifice.
Fanny Staunton Ogilvie has published four books of poetry: “You: Selected Poems and Knot: A Life” (memoir), “Easiness Found,” “The Berth,” and “Dust is the Only Secret.” Her new collection, “A Little of This / A Little of That, and Oh God What Have I Done to You,” will be published in autumn 2025. Her original art accompanies each book.
Poets with a connection to Martha’s Vineyard are encouraged to submit poems to community@mvtimes.com. Please include a bio of two to three sentences.
