Names

"Hacker is, to use a trite term, a major poet. More than that
she is exciting and true." -- George Szirtes




In Names, Marilyn Hacker juxtaposes glimpses of
contemporary lives with dialogues undertaken in signal poetic
voices. Using her signature wit, passion, and mastery of received
and invented forms, she convinces us to believe in a world made
possible by language -- prescient, playful, polyglot, and often
breathtaking.



from "Ghazal: The Beloved"


Lines that grapple doubt, written because of the beloved:
when grief subsides, what survives the loss of the beloved?Your
every declaration is suspect. That was, at least, the departing
gloss of the beloved.

Were you merely a servant of the state or (now you give the coin a
toss) of the beloved?

How pure you were, resistant in an orchard. Peace with justice: the
cause of the beloved.