[New-Poetry] mo natterin' bout po no matterin'

[David Graham]

> JforJames at aol.com wrote:
>> http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/0906/comment_178560.html
>> American Poetry in the New Century
>> by John Barr
>>  
>> The need for /something/ new is evident. Contemporary poetry's striking
>> absence from the public dialogues of our day, from the high school
>> classroom, from bookstores, and from mainstream media, is evidence of a
>> people in whose mind poetry is missing and unmissed.

>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------




I suspect I've probably posted this poem of mine before.  Here it is again.
It does seem as though we're addicted to mourning poetry's perpetual death.
. . .



On The Reported Death Of Poetry


. . . it was during the 1950's that poetry last had this religious aura.

            --Joseph Epstein, "Who Killed Poetry?"

Look, I've brought a little gift for you,
Poetry‹bit of seashell worn smooth
as a lip; and more to come, lint
on a windowsill, soundings
of woodthrush at dusk, lawnmowers
distant as the music of the spheres. . . .

Poetry, only you can tie such bootlaces,
only you witness mudflakes
shaken off by the dog, snatch of Bach
fading under the announcer's
cheerful catastrophes.

I bring you the swish of a nightgown
to the floor, cool drift of cloud
over one grave, the moment when
a boy's liquid nattering
first coalesces into a sentence.

I bring you valediction
and animal blurt, I commend
you to God in a whirlwind
and the squirrel-chitter rhythms
of Thelonious Monk:  Nutty,  Blue
Sphere, and Ugly Beauty above all.

Poetry, you've died so many times,
each age preceded by a better, giants
of utterance walking profligate earth.
You would think we'd tire
of the visionary funeral, but here
we come to the wake in our shiny
black suits, now we loosen our ties
and, as the first fire of scotch
warms our throats, begin again
the old stories, fruit-heavy bough
and golden stranger at the door.


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



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