Her Last Poem

The poet sits at her desk, chewing the end of a pen, mulling over her latest collection. Over the years, she has had some success with pamphlets and anthologies, but time has not been kind to her, and her sight is rapidly failing. This does not mean that she is considering giving up writing altogether, but she has always felt that publication is the auction of the mind, and she needs her mind in the twilight of her life.

She is editing the final poem when it occurs to her that, although this may be the last one she submits for publication, it is not the last poem she will compose, in her head, by hand or on a typewriter.  She plans to write for herself, record her words for the time when she will listen to them like the voices of old friends.

Kim M. Russell. 13^th April 2026

This Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub, we are writing Prosery with Melissa, our host, who says that Emily Dickinson is widely considered one of the greatest poets and that she likes her unconventional style and brevity. For Prosery today, we should include the following lines from her poem ‘Publication – is the Auction’:

“Publication – is the Auction
Of the Mind”