The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sun 3/9/2008)

[RetroLounge]

Letter To The Woman Who Stopped Writing Me Back

I wanted you to be the first to know - Harper & Row
has agreed to publish my collected letters to you.

The tentative title is Exorcist in the Gym of Futility.

Unfortunately I never mailed the best one,
which certainly was one of a kind.

A mutual friend told me that when I quit drinking,

I surrendered my identity in your eyes.

Now I'm just like everybody else, and it's so funny,

the way monogamy is funny, the way
someone falling down in the street is funny.

I entered a revolving door and emerged
as a human being. When you think of me
is my face electronically blurred?

I remember your collarbone, forming the tiniest
satellite dish in the universe, your smile
as the place where parallel lines inevitably crossed.

Now dinosaurs freeze to death on your shoulder.

I remember your eyes: fifty attack dogs on a single leash,
how I once held the soft audience of your hand.

I've been ignored by prettier women than you,
but none who carried the heavy pitchers of silence
so far, without spilling a drop.

Jeffrey McDaniel

**********************



Jeffrey McDaniel is the author of Alibi School, The Forgiveness Parade, and most recently The Splinter Factory. His poems have appeared in dozens of periodicals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, Ploughshares, New (American) Poets, and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. He is a recipient of grants from the NEA and the DC Commission for the Arts. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.

**********************

:hi:

RL

[xchrom]

1. he should have been writting to me. nt

[RetroLounge]

2. or to me...

I remember your eyes: fifty attack dogs on a single leash,
how I once held the soft audience of your hand.


:hi:

RL

[xchrom]

3. we'll keep him busy -- so he can build new poems.

or something like that.

[BlueIris]

4. Nice one.

Fits my mood.

[hisownpetard]

5. Good one! Love the title, too.

He gives a very good poetry reading, if you ever get the chance to catch him.
Was very young when he started teaching at SLC.
The undergrads were crazy over him.

[RetroLounge]

6. and I believe he studied under Mr. Lux?

Maybe I need to do the same?

:hi:

RL

[hisownpetard]

7. self delete

[lizziegrace]

9. Did you make a comment about Retro studying

*under* Mr. Lux? :spank:


hehe...

[RetroLounge]

10. Ah, what we do for our art...

:rofl:

RL

[lizziegrace]

16. hehe...

don't forget the cowboy jammies. :evilgrin:

[RetroLounge]

17. Never go anywhere without them...

:hi:

RL

[hisownpetard]

11. Jeez, nothing gets by the eagle eye of lizziegrace...

Yeah. Meant to send it as a PM but my brain seems to be on an extended leave of absence...

[lizziegrace]

12. I KNEW it!

:rofl:

I didn't see the original but I can follow the plot pretty well...

:evilgrin:

[lizziegrace]

13. As in

follow my mind to the gutter where I'll find my buddy RL. ;)

[hisownpetard]

14. Did you think you were seeing things?

Or, more specifically, NOT seeing things?

[lizziegrace]

15. NOT seeing things which should have been there

;)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. My dear Retro!

Very nice...

Great use of metaphors...

I love the ending verse!

Thank you!

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

19. My Pleasure

:hi:

RL

[zingaro]

18. oh god I loved this.

A wonderful synchronicity. Wonderful, and terrible at the same time.

"I've been ignored by prettier women than you,
but none who carried the heavy pitchers of silence
so far, without spilling a drop.

[RetroLounge]

20. "Wonderful, and terrible "

Yes, good description of the poetry I like.

Much like life...

:hi:

RL