Friday, December 26, 2008

Still on call, and in clinic today. But at least the snow has stopped for now. I may try to go chainless.

Here's a poem from today's Poetry Daily. I don't know who Gunter Eich is (I know, I could Google it . . .), but it doesn't matter. I love this poem.


Günter Eich Apocrypha

A pretty girl asks
for my autograph,
delighted! Except
it's her cigarette
she wants signed,

then lighted. Think about it.
I do. And am
for a moment
the happiest man
that I have ever known—

I have seen my end
and it is someone else's
body, breath
and lovely
inspiration.


--Franz Wright

*

Got this link from Jilly
U.K. embraces Canadian's book about vowels
"Enfettered, these sentences repress free speech. The text deletes selected letters."

You might recognize this as the opening of "Chapter E" in Christian Bök's Eunoia, an experimental poetic exercise built on five sections in which either a, e, i, o or u is exclusively employed.

Eunoia – which means "beautiful thinking" and is the shortest English word to include all five vowels – became an unlikely hit in Canada after its 2001 publication by Toronto-based independent Coach House Books. The book is in its 21st printing here, having sold more than 20,000 copies, an extraordinary feat for a poetry collection. It also won the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize.

2 comments:

SarahJane said...

Guenter Eich is an outstanding German poet. One of the best poetry books I got this past year - Twentieth Century German Poetry, edited by Michael Hofmann - includes a number of his poems. Highly recommended!

Peter said...

Thank you Sarah Jane. I will have to check it out.