The Scattering ~ Penelope Shuttle I cast you into the waters. Be lake, or random moon. Be first light, lifting up its beggar’s cup. I scatter your ashes. Be the gale teaching autumn to mend its ways, or leopard so proud of his spotted coat. Be the mentor of cherry trees. I cast your dust […]
Dejeuner Sur l’Herbe ~ Tu Fu, China, 8th Century Translated from Chinese by Carolyn Kizer (I somehow doubt this was the original title of the piece, but the reference to Manet’s painting is an interesting choice.) It’s pleasant to board the ferry in the sunscape As the late light slants into the afternoon; The faint […]
Reply to a Marriage Proposal ~ Irihapeti Rangi te Apakura Translated from Maori by Roger Oppenheim and Allen Curnow Don’t hand me over with a word, Toihau, don’t give me to Te Keepa! Isn’t it enough that people are talking as far as the quicksands of Karewa? I am a canoe cast up and broken […]
Wintering ~ Sylvia Plath This is the easy time, there is nothing doing. I have whirled the midwife’s extractor, I have my honey, Six jars of it, Six cat’s eyes in the wine cellar, Wintering in a dark without window At the heart of the house Next to the last tenant’s rancid jam and the […]
I wrote the first draft of this in August 2017. We were in Helsinki for a conference the first time that P45 started a public argument with Kim Jong Un. Unable to sleep, I found myself wondering what we would do if the unthinkable happened, and there was no US to fly back to at […]
