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:
Thank you so much for this. I found the text of the poem on a somewhat disreputable website so I'm not going to link it here, but I also found that it's in her book Winter Numbers and I think I'm going to buy it based on that poem alone. It's wonderful.
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
José’s book is excellent, as is his first one Citizen Illegal. I highly recommend both. And I second the Simic. What a loss that was. I’m glad we had him as long as we did.
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.
I’ve talked to a number of fellow writers over the years who’ve had similar experiences with Cummings. I think he’s a great entry into writing poetry even if some of his poems don’t hold up so well today.
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.
I guess what I mean by this is that I want people to go to the website if it was published online. I want those editors to get credit and if the people who are reading me can get the whole poem here, then there’s no reason to go to the place that first saw the piece for what it was. With Cummings I guess I feel a little differently because the two poems I posted pictures of are really well-known, heavily anthologized poems. That said, I should probably put multiple links to the poems I’m mostly writing about if I really want to spread the word.
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.
Thank you so much for this. I found the text of the poem on a somewhat disreputable website so I'm not going to link it here, but I also found that it's in her book Winter Numbers and I think I'm going to buy it based on that poem alone. It's wonderful.
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.
José’s book is excellent, as is his first one Citizen Illegal. I highly recommend both. And I second the Simic. What a loss that was. I’m glad we had him as long as we did.
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.
I’ve talked to a number of fellow writers over the years who’ve had similar experiences with Cummings. I think he’s a great entry into writing poetry even if some of his poems don’t hold up so well today.
Yes! Also, I felt like his work was accessible to me as someone who wasn't as well-versed in reading poetry yet.
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.
I guess what I mean by this is that I want people to go to the website if it was published online. I want those editors to get credit and if the people who are reading me can get the whole poem here, then there’s no reason to go to the place that first saw the piece for what it was. With Cummings I guess I feel a little differently because the two poems I posted pictures of are really well-known, heavily anthologized poems. That said, I should probably put multiple links to the poems I’m mostly writing about if I really want to spread the word.