That's Sicily
At night we sailed past shadowed,
enigmatic shores. Far off, the huge leaves
of hills swayed like a giant's dreams.
Waves slapped the boat's wood,
a warm wind kissed the sails,
stars rushed, helter-skelter,
to tell the history of the world.
That's Sicily, someone whispered,
three-cornered island, owl's breath,
handkerchief of the dead.
One small, whole poem, representative of so much of what I've loved reading this collection. Having flown over Italy, having seen maps, having climbed to the deck of a ferry at five o'clock in the morning to see a red sky rising over this ancient island, having in mind Whitman's "handkerchief of the lord, a scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped," I think I see what the poem suggests. Regardless, I am full of gratitude for these ten lines.
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Letters From A Young Poet
Monday night I dreamt that Tony Hoagland called. Lord knows why he called me, but he’d gotten a new haircut and, for some reason, wanted my advice about how to wear his new do. In the course of the dream, I stood for long time in front of the bathroom mirror in my childhood house – my dead father beside me – pushing my hair this way and that hoping to find a style that might suit Tony. When I wound up later in the dream in Tony’s living room, we talked about his hair, about travel, about the Amy Lowell scholarship, and finally about one of his poems that I had taught to a class of mine. My students loved the poem, and Tony was grateful to know.
The next morning, as I sat reading Adam Zagajewski’s poems from Mysticism for Beginners, I found myself having a transcendent experience as a reader. Fresh off my dream about Tony Hoagland, I thought, “I ought to find a way to tell Adam that I love these poems.” Since I didn’t have his email at hand, I considered ways to get in touch. Suddenly the internet felt to me like an enormous bulletin board and I thought, with a sense of optimism, that if I posted my note, Adam might some day notice the small scrap and perhaps even respond.
I have since discovered that Adam (along with Tony Hoagland) teaches at the University of Houston. The letter posted here is what I sent to him through the post, but I also wanted to make my thanks public and allow for the possibility that someone else might pass my note on the endlessly expanding bulletin board and be led, perhaps, to read the very same poems that have so moved me. Also, in the event that Adam writes back, I will, assuming I have his consent, post the response.
1 comment:
aha...
i enjoy this poem, too. and i love being able to read the whole thing and then understand your comments more fully.
i also enjoy the variation between letters to poets and your own comments.
was that posted at 627 am eastern time?
emily
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