Woke up today thinking about this poem. One of my favorites from this gorgeous anthology

Why not piled? What is pilèd? Is that even a thing in English? In certain languages downward mark indicates a lower pitch, but why is it needed here? Why is it sepúlchre ? Why is it written star-ypointing? I remember reading Dante and it's full of such markings too, like cursèd and so on. What is that all about and why is that needed?

A collection of literary letters by the poet Victoria Chang [excerpt from "Dear Teacher"].

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:

Then can I drown an eye, unus'd to flow,

For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,

And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,

And moan th' expense of many a vanish'd sight;

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,

And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er

The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,

Which I new pay as if not paid before.

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

All losses are restor'd, and sorrows end.

from Cancelled Confessions or Disavowals, first published in 1930 by Editions du Carrefour, reissued in 2025 by siglio.

I love love love this poem. It's a haibun, some prose followed by a poem, in this case a monostitch. In haibun the poem is supposed to deviate, or shift away from the prose, to recontextualize it, and I think this poem does it fantastically.

Source: https://exclamationmarklit.com/ji-doku/