The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Tue 3/18/2008)

[RetroLounge]

John Koethe’s Brains

Years ago, I got to go to one of
those dinners, you know, one of those dinners
that you think will change your life because they
take place in New York City and every-
one’s drinking martinis and saying nice
things about your poetry and what I
mean by everyone are poets a lot
more successful than you though your hair looks
good, your dress looks good, it’s your night, baby,
except the evening ends with lipsticky
kisses on the men’s cheeks and hotel sex
with the husband, and then it’s back to the
usual schlumping along for what seems
to be the rest of your worthless earthly
existence. You get the picture. That night
was my chance to try a bite of John Koethe’s
brains. He sat to my left and kindly made
the offer. I declined, I’m sad to say.
I don’t eat brains. They sound like something my
Belgian father would have made along with
his frogs’ legs and beef tongue, but it was nice
to be asked. And now I think, yes, I would
like a bite of John Koethe’s brains. I think
I could use that. It would be interesting
to taste the life of the mind, to share the
mind of a man who thinks deeply, who is
thinking deeply, I bet, even as I
write this. I admire how his poems
spool lengthily onto each page as he
winds his way through the maze of thinking one
thought, then the next, and though there’s sadness in
this, the loneliness of thinking, I think,
you’ve got that, you’ve got this companion, like
a bright little dog in your head, a brain
that doubles one’s experience into
reflection like a refractive light
deepens a boring day in the park, say,
whereas I’m bleeding, I’m masturbating,
full of the body, my womanhood, men,
which is okay, but I think a bite of
John Koethe’s brains would do me good right now.

Cathleen Calbert

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Cathleen Calbert is the author of two books of poetry: Lessons in Space (University of Florida Press) and Bad Judgment (Sarabande Books). Individually, her poems have appeared in Ms., The New Republic, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, The Women’s Review of Books, and elsewhere. She has been awarded The Nation Discovery Prize and a Pushcart Prize. Currently, she is a Professor of English at Rhode Island College.

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:hi:

RL

[xchrom]

1. ...

I think,
you’ve got that, you’ve got this companion, like
a bright little dog in your head, a brain
that doubles one’s experience into
reflection like a refractive light

[RetroLounge]

3. ...

:hi:

RL

[lizziegrace]

2. ...

:hug:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear Retro!

Oh, this is too damn good...

I get a glimpse of myself (just a tiny glimpse, mind you) at the weekly poetry readings where everyone says how good my stuff is...

And PoetryLA doesn't YouTube my recital from a month ago...

Thank you...

:hi: