[New-Poetry] John Balaban

[David Graham]

I'm back at my NewPo desk after a no-mail summer.

What have I been reading while on my summer vacation?  Well, one book  
that's grabbed me is John Balaban's new collection, *Path, Crooked  
Path*.

Van Gogh

                               translated from the Bulgarian with the  
author,
                               Lyubomir Nikolov

Well, he lived among us and hated winters.
He moved to Arles where summer and blue jays
obliged him to cut off his ear.
Oh, they all said it was a whore
but Rachel was innocent. When cypresses
went for a walk in the prison yard
he went along and sketched them.
His suns surpassed God's.
He spelled out the Gospel for miners
and their potatoes stuck in his throat.
Yes, he was a priest in sackcloth, who hoped
that one day humans would learn to walk.
He willed mankind his shoes.

John Balaban.  *Path, Crooked Path*.  Copper Canyon Press, 2006.


==========================================
David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu
Home Page:
http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
Poetry Library:
http://www.ripon.edu/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html
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