Mar 18, 2023·edited Mar 18, 2023Liked by Brian Spears
One of my favorite love poems I can't find online anywhere. It's Marilyn Hacker's Dusk: July. It's sort of long, so I'm not going to type out the whole thing, but here's the last stanza:
Such a beautiful piece, Brian. I love the idea of poems as contraband - the illicit ownership. When I was a kid I borrowed a book of Keats from the library and hid it in my bedroom so no one could see it or see me when I read it, so I think I get a little of what you're saying here and e e cummings is undeniable.
I am now very keen to get my hands on José Olivarez's book; what a beautiful poem. Your analysis (the pivot line, the "we" ending) opened it up for me; thank you!
Charles Simic has been one of my very favourites for years now and I was very sad to hear he passed at the beginning of the year. All of his "back of the envelope" scribbles hold a deep magic. I especially like "Evening Walk".
Happy heart, what heavy steps you take / As you hurry after them in the thickening
I will have to think about which love poem I love the most. But I want to mention the first time I read e.e. cummings, I was stunned by the way the poems were formatted, spaced and the use of punctuation and capitalization (or lack thereof sometimes). I then thought to myself that I could also be free with my writing (I was still discovering my voice and style then). Thank you for this illuminating piece.
You write: "I’m trying hard to not over-quote this poem to y’all because I want to respect the places that published it, so I’m going to skip the lines about..."
How does over-quoting, how does ENTIRELY quoting, the poem disrespect the places that published it? Fully quoting ee cummings and photographing a page of your book does not disrespect ee cummings or the publishers of his book, and in fact one of the takeaways from your story is that if a person fully-quotes a wonderful poem a kid might drop his Heinlein and pedal around town seeking out those "places" that published it, despite the significant dangers of parental condemnation, and ultimately even parting with money hard-earned at the deep-fryer, just to hold and read and treasure that of which he was given a mere taste.
So I guess I'm saying quote more: Poems are more likely to be paid for if they're not paywalled.
One of my favorite love poems I can't find online anywhere. It's Marilyn Hacker's Dusk: July. It's sort of long, so I'm not going to type out the whole thing, but here's the last stanza:
I just want to wake up beside my love who
wakes beside me. One of us will die sooner;
one of us is going to outlive the other,
but we're alive now.
Such a beautiful piece, Brian. I love the idea of poems as contraband - the illicit ownership. When I was a kid I borrowed a book of Keats from the library and hid it in my bedroom so no one could see it or see me when I read it, so I think I get a little of what you're saying here and e e cummings is undeniable.
I am now very keen to get my hands on José Olivarez's book; what a beautiful poem. Your analysis (the pivot line, the "we" ending) opened it up for me; thank you!
Charles Simic has been one of my very favourites for years now and I was very sad to hear he passed at the beginning of the year. All of his "back of the envelope" scribbles hold a deep magic. I especially like "Evening Walk".
Happy heart, what heavy steps you take / As you hurry after them in the thickening
shadows.
Thanks for your post. I'm just starting to learn about poetry now after years of not really appreciating it.
I will have to think about which love poem I love the most. But I want to mention the first time I read e.e. cummings, I was stunned by the way the poems were formatted, spaced and the use of punctuation and capitalization (or lack thereof sometimes). I then thought to myself that I could also be free with my writing (I was still discovering my voice and style then). Thank you for this illuminating piece.
This is gorgeous.
I have a question.
You write: "I’m trying hard to not over-quote this poem to y’all because I want to respect the places that published it, so I’m going to skip the lines about..."
How does over-quoting, how does ENTIRELY quoting, the poem disrespect the places that published it? Fully quoting ee cummings and photographing a page of your book does not disrespect ee cummings or the publishers of his book, and in fact one of the takeaways from your story is that if a person fully-quotes a wonderful poem a kid might drop his Heinlein and pedal around town seeking out those "places" that published it, despite the significant dangers of parental condemnation, and ultimately even parting with money hard-earned at the deep-fryer, just to hold and read and treasure that of which he was given a mere taste.
So I guess I'm saying quote more: Poems are more likely to be paid for if they're not paywalled.