I have one more poem to post. I’ve talked about it before because it’s one of my very favorites. A whole complex, interesting story in a few stanzas.
Before I do that, I wanted to say that I have been thinking about starting a series of posts on plot/story. With any luck I’ll get the first post up in the next couple days.
Here it is:
Love 20 cents the First Quarter Mile
Kenneth Fearing
All right. I may have lied to you and about you, and made a
few pronouncements a bit too sweeping, perhaps, and
possibly forgotten to tag the bases here or there,
And damned your extravagance, and maligned your tastes,
and libeled your relatives, and slandered a few of your
friends, O. K. ,
Nevertheless, come back.
Come home. I will agree to forget the statements that you
issued so copiously to the neighbors and the press,
And you will forget that figment of your imagination, the
blonde from Detroit;
I will agree that your lady friend who lives above us is not
crazy, bats, nutty as they come, but on the contrary rather
bright,
And you will concede that poor old Steinberg is neither a
drunk, nor a swindler, but simply a guy, on the eccentric
side, trying to get along.
(Are you listening, you bitch, and have you got this straight?)
Because I forgive you, yes, for everything. I forgive you for
being beautiful and generous and wise,
I forgive you, to put it simply, for being alive, and pardon
you, in short, for being you.
Because tonight you are in my hair and eyes,
And every street light that our taxi passes shows me you
again, still you,
And because tonight all other nights are black, all other hours
are cold and far away, and now, this minute, the stars are
very near and bright.
Come back. We will have a celebration to end all celebrations.
We will invite the undertaker who lives beneath us, and a
couple of boys from the office, and some other friends.
And Steinberg, who is off the wagon, and that
insane woman who lives upstairs, and a few reporters, if
anything should break.
Incredible. Thanks for sharing poems through the month, but this one topped them all.
Still something new to be read into it. Thanks!
Nice poem, even for poem-illiterate me.
Looking forward to the plot/story posts.
Love it, Rosina. Thanks for all the poetry posts.
I hope you don’t mind my sharing this very sad poem (sad to me, because it is about my uncle and my mom sorting through the attic of their childhood home before my widowed grandmother moved out). My uncle Dale Hobson wrote it:
http://www.dalehobson.org/poemsdh/memento.html
It’s a story in a few lines, too, which is why I thought of it just now. I love it because it spells out memories for me… little nuggets of my family history (like how my grandfather met my grandmother at a USO dance in Texas while she was on a road trip with her girlfriends).
Just wonderful.
That’s wonderful. I have really enjoyed the poems you’ve posted this month.