Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
VOCAL LESSON
For an age she believed
she had nothing to say.
She kept her self
throated in her proper box.
She spoke rare & small,
and she trembled.
She was ignored, inter-
rupted, disregarded, distained.
She grew
shy of heart
as the big voices
boomed off the big walls.
(They said you are
absence and void.)
She slept for years
a fool's slow sleep.
When she woke
she said No.
And Yes, Yes, Yes,
surprised at her own sound.
She felt her full
range and register
and she grew
to the music she made.
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell has published three collections of poems, Saint Sinatra, Moving
House, and Waking My Mother, and two chapbooks MINE and Waiting
for Ecstasy. Her work appears in many journals and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Best
of the Web Award, and the Arlin G. Meyer Prize. O'Donnell teaches English at Fordham University and is Associate
Director of Fordham's Curran Center for American Catholic Studies. Her website is at
http://angelaalaimoodonnell.com/.
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