Dr. Virginia R. Terris passed away on January 12, 2012. Dr. Terris was a professor of English at Adelphi University and an accomplished poet. Her poetry appeared in many journals including the New Yorker, Paris Review, Nation, American Poetry Review, and Greenfield Review. Between 1983 to 1987, Dr. Terris served as the Long Island director of the Poetry Society of America.
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THE CANAL IN WINTER
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In the canal the ice thickens
whichever way the wind comes from.
At first a fragile skin at morning
the ice ripples in the light wind.
The wind blows over it. The ice deepens.
Snow drifts across it blows away.
Tides seep over its edges. Freeze.
It grows too large for itself.
Heavy against itself it groans
The ocean under it restless.
Will not stay beneath it.
Will not be still
.
Crushing against itself
its crevasses open. I listen
to its snapping through the night.
I turn to the windows
to watch ice tearing itself apart.
.
This poem is from Canal: Poems by Virginia R. Terris (1981)
In the canal the ice thickens
whichever way the wind comes from.
At first a fragile skin at morning
the ice ripples in the light wind.
The wind blows over it. The ice deepens.
Snow drifts across it blows away.
Tides seep over its edges. Freeze.
It grows too large for itself.
Heavy against itself it groans
The ocean under it restless.
Will not stay beneath it.
Will not be still
.
Crushing against itself
its crevasses open. I listen
to its snapping through the night.
I turn to the windows
to watch ice tearing itself apart.
.
This poem is from Canal: Poems by Virginia R. Terris (1981)
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