[New-Poetry] Birthday boy/Simic

[David Graham]

Charles Simic is 68 years old today.

I never would have predicted this years ago when he was part of a  
large pack of up-and-comers I paid attention to, but somehow his work  
has been for me one of the most reliable pleasures in contemporary  
poetry.  With poets born in the 1930s, I return to his poems much  
more often than I do to those of James Tate, Mark Strand, Frank  
Bidart, Diane Wakoski, Michael Harper, Marvin Bell, Margaret Atwood,  
and others--despite or perhaps because  it is so reliable.  He found  
a very recognizable style fairly early, and stuck with it.  Rather  
like Russell Edson and Lucille Clifton, other poets from that  
generation whose work has aged well.


Have You Met Miss Jones?

I have.  At the funeral
Pulling down her skirt to cover her knees
While inadvertently
Showing us her cleavage
Down to the tip of her nipples,

A complete stranger, wobbly on her heels,
Negotiating the exit
With the assembled mourners
Eyeing her rear end
with visible interest.

Presidential hopefuls
Will continue to lie to the people
As we sit here bowed.
New hatreds will sweep the globe
Faster than the weather.
Sewer rats will sniff around
Lit cash machines
While we sigh over the departed.

And her beauty will live on, no matter
What any one of these black-clad,
Grim veterans of every wake,
Every prison gate and crucifixion,
Sputters about her discourtesy.

Miss Jones, you'll be safe
With the insomniacs,
You'll triumph
Where they pour wine from a bottle
Wrapped in a white napkin,
Eat sausage with pan-fried potatoes,
And grow misty-eyed remembering

The way you walked past the open coffin,
Past the stiff with his nose in the air
Taking his long siesta.
A cute little number an old man said,
But who was she?
Miss Jones, the guest book proclaimed.

--Charles Simic.  Walking the Black Cat.  Harcourt, 1996.


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



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20060509/1e269b09/attachment.html