Thursday, January 17, 2008

if i have made,my lady,intricate/imperfect various things

I include myself among those who don’t think a poem should be titled "Untitled.“ In the realm of language, you can't get away with it as easily as a painter can. If I can’t come up with a title, I use the first line. Or I pull something out of the guts of the poem. ee cummings was perfectly happy with numbers/Roman numerals, and so we know all his poems by their first lines. Still, I don’t like when people say “name them like they’re your babies.” That turns me cold. What I think is interesting is how Louise Glück has a bunch of poems with the same title. Five poems named “Vespers,” six poems named “Matins.” It gives me an uneasy feeling. Once I was supposed to meet a reporting source at a bar called Vinum. Turned out there were two bars in town by that name. She went to one while I went to the other. I waited for her a long time, reading a book titled Grass Soup. I remember it distinctly; I had a lovely time, drinking a glass of wine, reading a book about desperation. She was upset that she was waiting for me, alone, in quite another place.

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