The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 6/29/08

[BlueIris]

"The Unforgiven"

		                   Luke, 23: 39-43

The reformers cackle at the gate, clutching
their carefully collected eggs and tomatoes,
a rotten harvest.

You are protected.  This is as it should be.

What else have you stolen?  A wife, two children,
enough to keep you living well, if well beyond
your means.

Nothing anyone else wanted.

For five dollars you took the name your father
gave you.  And then he died and left you 
with his dusty mark.

How quickly they gathered stones.

I too took up a stone against you.
But that was centuries ago, before I cast my lot 
with yours.

Today, I drop the stone in the dirt.

A traitor commits his crime but once.  The rest
is retribution.  Slowly, I begin to pity
even myself.

They will break your legs and insist you walk.

Endure them.  Each of us suffers with envy
for the forgiven.  Even I, now telling 
you this.

Thank you for the gifts you sent.  I needed them.

I don't care where they came from.  From here,
where there is no garden, I kiss you,
on the other cheek you turn to me.

—Marie Howe

[BlueIris]

1. Kick.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear BlueIris!

OK, here we go...

This is more mainstream, to my eyes anyway...

At least I can understand it!

It's great!

Thank you...

:hi:

[BlueIris]

3. You can understand it? Great! Wanna 'splain it to me?

Thanks.

[BlueIris]

4. Kick.

[RetroLounge]

5. Ah, Marie Howe is so good

thank you!

:hi:

RL

[BlueIris]

6. Sometimes, I just...cry when I think of how good she is.

In my humble opinion, there are like, three or four other American poets who are this good.

When I heard her read in 1999, she admitted that she writes very slowly. This was a relief to me, as I don't see how anyone can produce work that is this excellent in anything less than an eternity.

[RetroLounge]

7. This explains it...

Marie Howe is the author of two volumes of poetry, The Good Thief (1998), and What the Living Do (1997), and the co-editor of a book of essays, In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from the AIDS Pandemic (1994). Her third volume of poetry, Kingdom Of Ordinary Time is forthcoming. Stanley Kunitz selected Howe for a Lavan Younger Poets Prize from the American Academy of Poets. She has, in addition, been a fellow at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe College and a recipient of NEA and Guggenheim fellowships. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, Agni, Ploughsahres, Harvard Review, and The Partisan Review, among others. Currently, Howe teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Columbia, and New York University.

:D

RL

[hisownpetard]

8. RL - Marie Howe is the author of 3 vol's of poetry. Her latest is called "The Kingdom of

Ordinary Time" and came out this year.

[RetroLounge]

9. Yeah, I know. Websites don't update to often

But my point is she teaches at SLC.

Seems to be a bunch of good poets there...

RL

[hisownpetard]

10. Definitely.