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Article: Agnus Mopus, or Writing Out the Body of Our Work.(Prose on Poetry)(Essay)
- Article from:
- The Antioch Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Antioch Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"I'm working on my Agnus Mopus," I announced to poet Henry Taylor as he stood in my doorway. That did about sum it up. Out of the depths of my being, out of a garbled and conflicted place, my words--taken from the transposed letters of magnum opus, the chief or great work of an artist/writer--had now incorporated Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God, and turned the great work, even the Son of God, into a little lady with a mop whose magnum opus consisted of shining up a counter, emptying a wastebasket. She is a mop and moping, our Agnus Mopus. Of course, my Agnus is no stranger to me. She has come up through the center of my life and from a time when memory kept things. She ...