Divorce Poem Before dawn I called for you,

My poem, but you didn't come.

I had woken up to the song

Of the cardinal perched

On the fence. You weren't at my desk in all the words that I wrote down and crossed.

You weren't in my shoes nor in the letters that had come and gone all month

Nor in the space held by a window,

Its fourteen trees, its seven stars

That always lag behind.

The poetic features in this poem are subtle yet effective. The line breaks are positioned so that there is some enjambment (going over into the next line) to give an articulate, forceful rendition of the poet's feelings. The subject of the poem is not difficult to ascertain. The poet is writing literally, about a divorce poem, not merely a divorce, and not merely a poem. You will note the "d" sound repeats itself in "dawn," "cardinal," "desk," and onto the last word's last letter in "behind." This articulates the "d" sound as a reminder of the "d" ivorce and the pain it might be causing, or the loneliness as will be evidenced and discussed in a moment.

The poem itself talks about where the "poem" isn't, and thus follows a descriptive list. We have the poem missing from the desk, shoes, and letters that have come and gone each month. The poem in an abstract sense is not even in the space held by a window. So then, if the loved one is gone, he/she is not even in the window to be seen from behind, walking away. There are 12 lines and two sentences in the whole poem. The poem would not benefit from being one long line as a two line poem I think gives the poem a crisper edge, making it edgy and tired, just like the poet is.

The poem is a little nostalgic and is better served by a stop in the middle of the poem, maybe as reflections into what could or couldn't have...

Either way, the speaker talks about before dawn, he called for him/her revealing a longing. The cardinal is singing, maybe taunting the poet. he/she begins to rummage around the house for a poem, or maybe even a token of remembrance. The poet looks at the desk, in the shoes, in the letters that had come and gone all month. Perhaps this was a long distance relationship as evidenced by the reference to the letters.
There is quite an abstract flair at the end here where the poet then proposes that they don't find the poem/loved one in the space held by the window. Windows usually allow vision to the outside, or inside even, but in a frail way. For the poet to describe the space held by a window as having fourteen trees, and seven stars that lag behind, we are getting a sense for sure that there are those fourteen trees, but we're not quite sure whether to accept there are stars there now or because they lag behind, will maybe appear later.

The poem does not take advantage of the situation created by the wording of the description of the window. For example, most readers will read "fourteen trees" and want to find a symbolic set of fourteen "somethings" in the poem. Fourteen lines? Fourteen syllables? There is no such thing, and the inclusion of the seven stars which almost comes out of nowhere is just as unnerving, until one realizes that the stars may in actuality, be a dream, so that the poet can find his or her poem or loved one in the dream. I have been stressing the distinction between the poem and the long lost loved one very lightly deliberately because the fact of the matter is, it could be either in that it is both. If the poem is about the other party in the divorce, it is more than safe to say that the poem can be used as a direct metaphor for the person in all levels of the poem. The title is "Divorce Poem" but the poet speaks about…