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Kite Poem

By Joyce Carol OatesPosted Tuesday, May 27, 2003, at 12:51 PM ET

Listen to Joyce Carol Oates reading this poem.

For Billy Collins

Some-
thing there
is in the American
soul that soars with
kites that soar! Some-
thing alive with the roar
of the wind lifting the kite
that soars above rooftops, tree-
tops, and awestruck heads! And yet—
Something there is not in the
American soul to adore the
kite that fails to soar.
I've seen it, I've
feared it, and
so have you.

The kite whose tail
is tattered in the
TV antenna.
The kite that rises
thrillingly
at dawn
then crashes
vertically
at your feet.

in a
heap

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Joyce Carol Oates is the author of Broke Heart Blues and of the novel Blonde. Her recent poetry publications have been in the Paris Review, the Yale Review, and The New Yorker, as well as Slate.

Click here to visit Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem Project site.

To submit poetry to Slate, send up to five poems and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Robert Pinsky, Slate Magazine, Boston University, 236 Bay State Road, Boston, MA, 02215.

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