Whatever you Paid for That Sweater, It was Worth It
Be scared of yourself
The real self
Is very scary.
It is a man
But more importantly
The man is tall
And is everything in you that is an absolute reverse of all your actions.
In you he will do things and in you no one will know the difference
Still the honey and the herb, the bright lights.
The piece of fiscal fish, the lemons,
The blank above with stars will praise you
But he, he puts his legs over frail women
And tries to get to the thing they won’t give up.
Just as true loneliness gets to the very real thing in you
Scary or not, is part man for all it is wanting and can’t get
To the place where it has married woman, it sits
In a sea of lemons, its tail dragged bloody across the floor.
Still, here I do not speak of mutilation.
The real self is not muddy, it is pure
Still here it is a thing of murder
The self comes off itself and murders the woman in its path
Her skirts effortlessly careening back there up into the stars.
–Dorothea Lasky
This poem is from Lasky’s volume, Awe. I’ve written here about another of Lasky’s publications, Poetry is Not a Project. Her work is new to me, but I’m digging in and loving the spade work of discovery. This one grabbed me right around the midsection on first reading. It traces many of my personal themes, and does so deftly. Phrases from this poem are still singing inside, like “fiscal fish,” and “it sits/In a sea of lemons, its tail dragged bloody across the floor.”
This is a book definitely going on my list. What an extraordinary poem! What a literary voice!
I went to see if I could find examples of her reading and found her blog (she has one at blogspot and another birdsinsnow.com), with links to her poems, interviews, etc.
I did find a 2010 interview at Bomblog with audio. She did a phoned-in reading.
http://bombsite.powweb.com/?p=8282
Well, this post definitely inspired me. What else can I say?
M, thanks for your added resources. I am interested in the interview, thanks for including that link.
And so glad to hear this was a connect for you too. Especially meaningful coming from a poet.
Deborah, I am curious about what your response might be to V. Klinkenborg’s rememberance of Frank Kermode in today’s NYTimes. He included this provocative quote from Kermode: “To be able to devote one’s life to art without forgetting that art is frivolous is a tremendous achievement of personal character.” Hmmmm.
Janet, thank you for alerting me to Klinkenborg’s tribute. I always liked Kermode, and her appreciation feels thoughtful and accurate.
As for that quote–whoa. It put me in that deeply ambivalent place about art making, something I am dealing with more now than ever. So a part of me says OK, yeah, you’re right Frank, it IS essentially a frivolous. But another part says does anything else feel this authentic? And look at what survives time to speak about a culture once it is gone. I am of two minds too much these days.
[…] Globe today. I just recently discovered Lasky and am a fan of both Poetry is Not a Project and Awe. In this review Michael Brodeur speaks to the contrasts at play in her […]