close or unfold

A dialectic of poetics: those who seek the perfect close and those who allow the poem to unfold and unfold…

about to clap

About to clap, put your hands in your lap…apparently the poet didn’t see that passage as the place to close.

get close

You can’t read a poem nor write a poem, unless you can close read a poem.

always be closing

At poetry readings, I’ve seen poets who can’t even sell a few copies after having read from their book(s). This should be a cause for concern. You should be able to close the deal in the room.

near sighted

It was all close-to-home writing.

end or beginning

Was it the last line of this poem, or the first line of the next?

the persauder

He could close the deal with one poem at an open mike.

too close

She began to think of him not as a critic but as a literary stalker.

near to hear

A poem so tacit and understated I had to press my ear to the page.

the close

In sales, when the close is spoken, we say the next one to speak loses. Don’t speak past your last line.

sweet spiel

Poet, be a salesperson with a sweet spiel and a hard close.

box or old barn

Even a poem that closes, as Yeats said, like a box clicking shut, is open in many ways…reading it is like being inside an old barn with many missing boards and shingles, the light streaming in from many directions.