Poetry 2020 Edition 8

Poetry Goal 2020:  to read a poem* every day.

 

Collection # 15 Dark Testament by Pauli Murray, LiveRight Publishing 2018 (orig 1970), 100 pages

Words

. . .

 

We are spendthrift with words,

we squander them,

toss them like pennies in the air — arrogant words,

angry words, cruel words, comradely words,

shy words tiptoeing from mouth to ear.

 

But the slowly wrought words

of love and the thunderous words

of heartbreak — these we hoard.”

 

 

 

Collection # 16 3 New York Poets: Charles North & Tony Towle & Paul Violi edited by Andrew McCarron, Station Hill 2015, 302 pages

. . .

You see,

most of us do not use our backs properly,

they float unused in the body’s sea,

retreat like flights of steps into the earth,

or mount like birds and hurtle through space

in a universe of

misuse —

 

+ .  .  .   (Tony Towle’s Autobiography)

OK, so this collection is…  interesting. And very WHITE. And white MALE. huh.  And it read like that. I really must admit, in some ways, most ways, I just didn’t get it.  Some of the poetry was cool; some fun word play, thought-provoking imagery, etc and blahblahblah? But the descriptions of the interviews attempting to connect the poet’s lives to their head games to the work to their art?  Fell flat to me. I suppose that is my disconnect with Andrew McCarron. Kudos to him and it’s not necessarily an uninteresting project but I must admit, I’m not the best audience for this.

I spent most of my time when reading the poems wishing for a cool postcard to write that snippet to send to a friend. Postcard Poetry!

This round goes to Murray. 

And me for really enjoying my poetry project!

 

 

*Or more. I’m not tracking, I’m just reading. I’m not limiting this experience to one poem a day – that is only the minimum.

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