I also recommend Scott Cairns' 'Idiot Psalms' in this month's Poetry, reading which is a useful reminder of why poetry is my favorite kind of religious experience. And while you're there, you may as well read Michael Hoffman's piece on the Lowell-Bishop letters in which Hoffman makes his preference for Bishop over Lowell unabashedly clear (a preference for which I cannot blame him, though I can't help feeling a little sorry for Lowell).
And finally, from an anthology of contemporary poets from Northern Ireland (called The New North) that I've been reading:
Infidelities
After he'd gone,
she found money in the sheets,
fallen when he pulled his trousers off.
Gathering the coins into a small pile
she set them on the window ledge.
They sat, gathering dust, guilt,
until one day her husband
scooped them into his pocket.
Small change for a call
he couldn't make from the house.
- Moyra Donaldson
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3 comments:
that poem was clever. clinical.
happy belated 30 th birthday greetings.
for women it just gets better after 30. we get the big picture finally, the hormones settle down , we loose them pimples, we make friends with the mother in law, drive the man home when he is too drunk after his reunions.
the men i notice cling pathetically to thier yesterdays, refusing to let go. they make a fool of themselves over younger women, listen to pink floyd still, some of them grow thier hair, some shave themselves bald, some suddenly buy fancy bikes and drive to work in them. they get too nostalgic over college mates, highfiving , hugging and getting sentimental.
really hard on the men.
Falstaff - can you explain to me the allure of modern poetry? Most seem to consist of non-rhyming lines of whmisical observations with poor punctuation and carriage returns.
I'm not being facetious and I know you're an ardent fan of poetry. Indeed, I'm guessing my ability to appreciate poetry has not been developed yet but I'm struggling to see what you see in many of the passages you quote from contemporary poetry. thanks.
a
Thanks for the shout out. I appreciate it!
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