Please note that the poems and essays on this site are copyright and may not be reproduced without the author's permission.


Monday 20 June 2011

Ted Berrigan: Poem Made after Re-reading the Wonderful Book of Poetry, "Air", by Tom Clark, Seven Years Since He First Sent It to Me


.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Container_beets_with_cabbage_moth_damage.jpg

Detroit Dark Red Beet greens in outdoor container, partly eaten by cabbage moth larvae: photo by Downtowngal, 11 December 2007




..............poem

........ frogs

...mud............... February

.............."in mothballs"

Ah, me!





Ted Berrigan: Poem Made after Re-reading the Wonderful Book of Poetry, "Air", by Tom Clark, Seven Years Since He First Sent It to Me, c. 1977, from The Collected Poems, 2005

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Ah, me!" I said that just a few minutes ago. Last night, as I recall, Caroline said it in her sleep. I don't think Jane has ever said it. I guess you need a larger amount of experience before issuing your first "Ah, me!" I love reading this (and seeing the beet greens, even though they're damaged) and the unusually beautiful moth balls. Some people really, really "have it." "Tambourine Life" was the first long poem I read that really took me on a trip I never forgot, one that forever deeply affected me.

TC said...

"Ah, me!" sighs the inner voice, drawing one down inexorably toward the inevitable.

Of course you're right, Curtis.

But perhaps once upon a time, centuries ago, Louisa May Alcott might just have made a Jane character say that.

I suppose we should thank heavens times have changed in a progressive direction re. the public display of world-weariness.

Then again, are not the young, with the immense groaning weight of the doubtful future bearing down upon them, qualified, right now, to be the world-weariest of us all?

But as they once said, tone is everything. Or is it that they now say, You can't read tone on the internet?

I any case, Curtis, I read a smile (if not a smirk) and perhaps also a roll of the eyes into Ted's "Ah, me!" here.

(He was basically an "indoor person", and found the country life, regarded from a distance whether physically "here" or "there", mildly risible.)

VINCENT FARNSWORTH said...

there was a time in Tijuana back in the 1980's. Me and Slick would go down there to load up on cheap booze and drink margaritas in Rosarita. We walked into one particular Mexican liquor store that had bottles of vodka in large clear jugs, the size of bottles I associated with apple juice back in the day. A whole corner stacked with this clear firewater that was my achilles heel/fuel of choice at the time. Ah me I sighed, I had to get one. Sipped it quick it like a giant hummingbird.

TC said...

Vincent,

Ah, me!

Prehistory is definitely the greatest historical period.

Anonymous said...

interesting!