Nov 21, 2008

Witness | Introduction

Liz Waldner’s “Witness” is the final poem in the fifth section (“Triangle”) of Waldner’s Euclidian-inspired A Point Is That Which Has No Part
(2000), following sections named “Point,” “Line,” “Circle,” and “Square.” Developing an extended metaphor that likens the coming of dawn (and the new day) to a wild horse, “Witness” exemplifies what is strongest in Waldner’s poetry: diction, intellectualism, and an appreciation of science and nature. The combination of poetry and science characterizes much of Waldner’s poetry. In her later work Saving the Appearances (2004), for instance, she uses Plato’s idea, which was later applied by Copernicus, that there is a fundamental spirit that links the empirical world (its appearances) and the revelations it causes.