I don't remember where I found this but I like it, don't you? I like Byron, "mad, bad, and dangerous to know," as ex-ladyfriend called him. I've been in a poetry mood lately, but to paraphrase Austen, I venture to recommend myself a larger allowance of prose in my daily study.
my three favorite poets:
ReplyDeletelawrence ferlinghetti
charles bukowski
and
richard brautigan
was (still am a bit) heavy into the beat poets of the day. bukowski being my favorite writer of that time. yes, even more than kerouac.
yeah? I like the Beats too. I like Corso: Should I get married? Should I be good?
ReplyDeleteAstound the girl next door with my velvet suit and faustus hood?
http://www.litkicks.com/Texts/Marriage.html
The thing about the beats is that really, they are (mostly) a bunch of very talented, incorrigible addicts, criminals & deadbeat dads. This doesn't take from their work, but it clouded my hero worship right away.
ReplyDelete..but you know I have a thing for the talented and iccorigible. Ohh, and especially the tragiclly flawed. Man, that's hot!
ReplyDeleteHB: I'm so with you on ferlinghetti. I love it that he not only wrote, he and his city lights made it possible for the other incorrigibles to write and publish. I haven't read the others, and may only know ferlinghetti because in junior high I picked up a copy of one his books from a used book sale...(Yes, I am semi-illiterate.)
SD might remember that one of my early speech poems was ferlinghetti...Christ climbed down. ("Praise the Lord Calvert Whisky!" as I recall.)
And a final PS: April is national poetry month. You must be feelin' it in the air.
Did i really do Plath?? If I did, it must have only been for a week or two. I think it might have been JM (!!) who did Daddy.
ReplyDeleteFerlinghetti was one of my firsts...I think 9th grade? I paired Christ Climbed down with a little Robert Frost. Yum, juxtoposition.
I like the confessional girl poets, but only to a point. I know I did Sexton--The one about being a chair?--and Atwood. Atwood's Marrying the Hangman was probably my favorite: http://poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=177287
Still love it.
maybe it's sexton i'm remembering, the silence that falls over a party, clink of ice, arms akimbo? Was that it? Or was that the one the poet with a coincidentally similar name to your grandmother wrote? I would never confuse you with JM (!) I promise.
ReplyDeleteawesome!!
ReplyDeleteHe said: the end of walls, the end of ropes, the opening
of doors, a field, the wind, a house, the sun, a table,
an apple.
She said: nipple, arms, lips, wine, belly, hair, bread,
thighs, eyes, eyes.
They both kept their promises.
I forgot about the grandma-like poem! That was first, even before Ferlinghettit. Oh, that was bad. So very bad.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Sexton was the one with the party, and the silence and the smoke...and again with the crazy eyes. I've been looking for the text online...can't find it.
I dug the Corso poem, too. I like how it's so joyful and enthusiastic, but simultanously grim. Cheerful pessimism?
Oh, and I'm at the public library. I'm pleased to report that all copies of Anne Sexton poetry are presently checked out. Good work, library patrons!
ReplyDeletecheers to them!
ReplyDelete