Enlightenment in 2014
Air of introspection
Penetrates our membranes.
Sitting in a bookshop corner
Satisfied by a sign:
SELF HELP
Category: Poetry
June 21, 2014
June 18, 2014
The Lydia Davis Project: Mothers
(based on Lydia Davis’ short story ‘Mothers’)
Mother – is it blood or other
That defines you?
Did you hold me in your womb?
Did you cradle me in your arms?
Did you feed me from your breast?
Mother – do I know you?
Am I your only son
Or were there others?
Was the name you gave me
What I deserved or were
You hoping for a better child?
Mother – I’m afraid
Of you dying, and
Being left alone with you.
Are those the only options?
I wonder what sorts of mothers
The other children had.
June 17, 2014
The Lydia Davis Project: How W.H. Auden Spends the Night in a Friend’s House:
(based on Lydia Davis’ short story ‘How W.H. Auden Spends the Night in a Friend’s House:’
As a visitor
You are unfamiliar
To the nuances of
another’s home.
It is filled with silence,
Unfamiliar silence, ambient
Buzzing of the unknown.
It’s past midnight –
still awake.
No chance of
Resting amongst
Foreign sheets.
There are no
Lofty comforts in
What feels like a
Stranger’s room.
June 12, 2014
I Need No Gravestone
I need no gravestone, but
If you need one for me
I would like it to bear these words:
He made suggestions. We
Carried them out.
Such an inscription would
Honour us all.–Bertolt Brecht
June 10, 2014
The Lydia Davis Project: The Brother-in-Law
(based on Lydia Davis’ short story ‘The Brother-in-Law’)
This man who’s quite hard to place
Is a ghost who leaves no trace.
His past is unclear
But he lives so near
So he floats all over our space.
June 9, 2014
The Lydia Davis Project: The House Plans
(based on Lydia Davis’ short story ‘The House Plans’)
Naked in this land
My soul pursues
Value in all things.
Such is the life I lead
As I struggle with
Quiet dignity.
Often wishing
I could return
To my long abandoned past
For no reason less than fear.
June 7, 2014
For Anton
A beautiful poem by Donna Pucciani that expresses everything I love about Chekhov with staggering simplicity.
I’ve always loved Chekhov,
the manic visitations, the incessant
comings and goings.
I’ve never had to abandon villa
or watch an orchard fall to the axe.
But I have known the languid whistle
of a train in the night . . .
–excerpt from “For Anton” in Hanging Like Hope on the Equinox by Donna Pucciani (virtual artists collective, Chicago 2013). First published in Tribeca.
June 7, 2014
The Lydia Davis Project: Extracts from a Life
(based on Lydia Davis’ short story ‘Extracts from a Life’)
The sharp bow strings
of the violin sing,
Practicing perfection.
June 7, 2014
The Lydia Davis Project: The Letter
(based on Lydia Davis’ short story ‘The Letter’)
Paper memories stream thoughts
So sweet, so tragic.
You cannot deny their power,
These utter works of magic.
A lack of taste for lips and
no chance of smell for nose.
It seems he sent a poem because
He couldn’t be fucked with prose.
June 2, 2014
The Lydia Davis Project: The Mouse
(based on Lydia Davis’ short story ‘The Mouse’)
A trap for a rat
Set in the day
Clamps in the night.
Come morning we see
It lives, half-living
Half-breathing, half-dead.
Bring a hammer
Down to its face.
A gift of tranquility.
Too afraid,
So throw it out
Instead.
The mouse
Now in the cold
Stuck in a trap.
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