[New-Poetry] Dick Barnes

[David Graham]

Speaking of unknown poets, last summer I discovered the work of Dick  
Barnes, whose selected poems were published posthumously in 2005.   
Like Frederick Seidel's, his was a name I guess I was vaguely aware  
of, but I couldn't have named a book or poem by him.  He's still not  
exactly easy to find--not published by FSG, for one thing.

His selected poems was edited by Robert Mezey, whose introduction to  
the work is very compelling.  I'm sure that the blurb on the jacket  
from David Ferry ("one of the best poets we've had in America") will  
convince as few readers as Adam Kirsch's praise of Seidel seems to,  
but Barnes is really worth checking out.

Anyway, I've been greatly enjoying his work.  Here's a tiny sample:

Example and Admonition



My father's admonition: when given

a choice, choose the path that

leads uphill, always,



so up we went, but all led down soon after:

our destination Deep Creek, where the water had gathered

by taking every downhill opportunity.



We thought of that when the higher path turned down,

but no one mentioned it then, nor ever, in fact, till now.

Two lessons: and though sometimes I feel clever,



and have read the Chou I book all about that water,

I've not forsaken either one. If there be something in a man

that flows uphill, he has to go with it



whatever sweat or humiliation may attend his going.

Done patiently, this is called "matching heaven with heaven."

Otherwise, just strife.


--Dick Barnes
===========================


A Child Who Is Not Likable

A child who is not likable, quite lacks
the innocent coquetries of her age and sex,

knocks things over often, demands what she can get,
does not expect to be liked, and is not likable—and yet

seldom frets, and never without calculation, sees
right through the phony kindness of adults she knows,

plays soberly upon their vanities, never pleads for mercy
nor for the love she isn’t going to get, gets

what she has, and keeps it.

--Dick Barnes.  A Word Like Fire:  Selected Poems.  Handsel Books, 2005.




==========================================
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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