Weekly Edition #46
Art by Brian Kershisnik
The Couple Next Door by Kim Dower
The couple next door reads all day long.
I can see them from our adjoining hotel patios
high above the sea.
The couple next door sits
at a round white plastic table on hard chairs,
their books touching as they
turn their pages at the same time.
I listen for any sounds they might make:
soft cough, sigh of joy,
I hear nothing except for southbound traffic
on Pacific Coast Highway, distant
waves, morning sounds of housekeepers
cleaning the grounds below our deck.
The man’s book looks fat; I see him
thick glasses brand new cap
staring intently into the page,
I never see him smile so I know the book is not funny.
I never see him shake his head so I know the book does not
confuse him, but he suddenly lifts his head
looks out at the ocean, puts his hand over his mouth.
The woman looks content like her book understands her:
it’s about something she knows too well––
bringing up children, watching them grow,
saying goodbye.
I brought books too but prefer watching them:
wonder how they arrived at this place
where reading in silence carries them through the day.
Other poems on reading/poetry I enjoyed reading this week:
"I place one word slowly
in front of the other.,
like learning to walk again
after an illness.
But the blank page
with its hospital corners
tempts me.
I want to lie down
in its whiteness
and let myself drift
all the way back
to silence."
-Block by Linda Pastan
"It was like soul-kissing, the way the words
filled my mouth as Mrs. Purdy read from her desk.
All the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15,
but Mrs. Purdy and I wandered lonely as clouds borne
by a breeze off Mount Parnassus. She must have seen
the darkest eyes in the room brim: The next day
she gave me a poem she’d chosen especially for me
to read to the all except for me white class.
She smiled when she told me to read it, smiled harder,
said oh yes I could. She smiled harder and harder
until I stood and opened my mouth to banjo playing
darkies, pickaninnies, disses and dats. When I finished
my classmates stared at the floor. We walked silent
to the buses, awed by the power of words." -How I Discovered Poetry by Marilyn Nelson
"Here’s a bit of paper
And a book to lean on
What more does he want?
In his well-taught hand-writing
He’ll send her a bit of love
To make her blush."
-from A Bit Of Love by Helen Dunmore (click link to read the full poem)
"I am sure you are thinking too
Because of your silence
You are reading me in a quiet spot
Thus all my poems taste of you
Winter is coming; tea and wine on a winter night, like you and me
Ending the hot and cold is always warmth" -Your Silence, My Poem by Liu Weijian
"No reworking
your buried and melancholy childhood.
No oscillating between mirror and
disappearing memories.
What disappeared wasn’t poetry.
What broke was no crystal.
Penetrate, with stealth, words’ dominion.
Poems are waiting to be written.
They are paralysed but without despair.
Calm, fresh, membrane intact.
Mute and brute, immaculate as a dictionary.
Let the poem live within you, then write it.
Be patient with obscurity. Calm down when provoked.
Wait for each poem to become real, consummated
with the power of words
and the power of silence." -from Procuring Poetry by Charles Bernstein (click link to read the full poem)
Recommended Listening:
Hey, Ma - Bon Iver + U (Man Like) - Bon Iver
Fly On Your Wall - Angel Olsen
S&S Presents Dreams: Julie Byrne & Eric Littmann - Spain Won't You Tell Your Dreams - Lee Hazlewood When Did We Stop - New Move Cigarettes and Coffee - Otis Redding
Links of the Week: Depopulated Hopper No Social Life Experiment Elton John on the creative process behind Tiny Dancer Hey Human, See What You Do? For 13 years, 2 friends wrote letters daily. It was a love affair of poetry, separated only by death. (such a beautiful story :) i'm going to go write a letter to someone today) Thinking of starting a literary magazine? Here’s what you should know (I gave some quotes for this piece)