I was delighted to go to Bailey Coy Books after dinner at La Cocina last night, and find the new Billy Collins-edited 180 More: Extraordinary Poems For Every Day on display there. (The Poetry 180 series began with Collins's poem-a-day program for American high schools, when he was poet laureate. There are 180 days of school, hence 180 poems in the anthology). It is chock full of fun "hospitable" poems, including poets such as Kay Ryan, Mark Doty, Bob Hicok, Li-Young Lee, Aimee Nezhukumatahil, Rebecca Wee, Sharon Olds, and even John Ashbery (which is a surprise to me, as I don't think of his poems as very accessible). Best of all, I got to see one of my poems, "Anagrammer," which originally appeared in Poetry, included with the others. Yay. Hopefully I can lead some highschoolers (and others) down the dark path of anagrams and other word play.
Here is one from F. J. Bergmann
An Apology
Forgive me
for backing over
and smashing
your red wheelbarrow.
It was raining
and the rear wiper
does not work on
my new plum-colored SUV.
I am also sorry
about the white
chickens.
*
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6 comments:
YAAAAAAY Peter! How was the show at La
Cocina? Did you sit by the street? I love that place, especially when the doors are open. Plus you can see the guys in the gym across the street. Or used to could. Not sure the gym is still there. Did you go to Dilettante Chocolates after for desert?
Hahahahahahaha. Heh heh heh heh heh. That poem is hilarious. I love Williams, but this poem is just so called for! Why didn't one of us think about writing such a poem. You know, kill off our doctor-poet father.
That poem is so cool.
*chuckles*
C Dale: that is so Freudian. And funny. Wasn't somebody accusing you the other day of driving an SUV? :)
At 5 past Tuesday
celebral lunatics
talking of relevance
on the art boards in cyberspace
gather sound,
claiming to make the patterns of exchange
they create
into a number of truths
which frame a commitment
to concrete expression
by anchoring sense in earth bound images
within the context of modernity
I listen
transfixed
hypnotised
by the weight of voices
and
test a theory
of how
to picture
meaning
by measuring
the relative
length
of each syllable
with its syntatic sense
and
the
degree
of assonance
cossanance
and
alliterative value
when
spoke
to
life
by
a
poet’s breath
Congrats Peter! I'm looking forward to picking up a copy.
Also, loved the Franz Wright poem you just posted.
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