[New-Poetry] Mark Strand's "Man and Camel"

[Anny Ballardini]

A chilling poem preceded by a beautiful poem in one poem
  From: jforjames at aol.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 7:33 PM


  -----Original Message-----
  From: knopfpoetry at info.randomhouse.com
  To: JforJames at aol.com
  Sent: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 8:00 AM
  Subject: Mark Strand's "Man and Camel"


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          Mark Strand was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for his book BLIZZARD OF ONE. The title poem of his most recent volume, MAN AND CAMEL, appears below and can be heard, read by the poet, in today's audio clip. "Fire," another poem from the collection, is featured on the downloadable broadside below. 





                Man and Camel 
              On the eve of my fortieth birthday
              I sat on the porch having a smoke
              when out of the blue a man and a camel
              happened by. Neither uttered a sound
              at first, but as they drifted up the street
              and out of town the two of them began to sing.
              Yet what they sang is still a mystery to me—
              the words were indistinct and the tune
              too ornamental to recall. Into the desert
              they went and as they went their voices
              rose as one above the sifting sound
              of windblown sand. The wonder of their singing,
              its elusive blend of man and camel, seemed
              an ideal image for all uncommon couples.
              Was this the night that I had waited for
              so long? I wanted to believe it was,
              but just as they were vanishing, the man
              and camel ceased to sing, and galloped
              back to town. They stood before my porch,
              staring up at me with beady eyes, and said:
              "You ruined it. You ruined it forever."
               






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              TODAY'S AUDIO CLIP:
               Listen to a recording of Mark Strand reading "Man and Camel." 

               About MAN AND CAMEL

              Download a free broadside of Mark Strand's "Fire"

              About Mark Strand

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        Excerpt from MAN AND CAMEL. Copyright © 2006 by Mark Strand. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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