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Monosyllabic
​by J. R. Solonche

The best ones are the small ones,
those you need to hold in your hand
two or three at a time, those you need
to feel for size, and shape, and heft,
the blunt, the sharp, the smooth,
the rough, the square, the round,
the firm, the soft, the ones like rocks,
like bricks or stones in streams,
the ones like clods of soil or clumps
of clay, the ones you pile to build
the whole world with, and then
the ones you hurl to bring it down.

J.R. Solonche
Nominated for the National Book Award and nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize, J.R. Solonche is the author of 33 books of poetry and coauthor of another. He lives in the Hudson Valley.

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  • Home
    • Poetry
    • Translations
    • Fiction
    • Interviews
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  • Masthead
  • Issues
    • Us v. World Revisited
    • Fall 2025
    • Spring 2025
    • Fall 2024
    • Spring 2024
    • Fall 2023
    • Spring 2023
    • Fall 2022
    • Summer 2022
    • Exilé Sans Frontières
  • AR Tunes
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