fragment

[shuck_spit]

...staring at his handsome head,
because he asked, I took his stock,
impertinent to pitch or tone or hue;
him having asked, it did not matter much,
or mattered less. Although my chin went up
and brow went down when cruel came home
to roost, uneasy lies the head
on nights when we are changed...

Comments

[god_andthe_muse]

purposefully alienating. I feel inferior and helpless.
Tell me when you finish your first novel, k?

[shuck_spit]

Thanks. Actually, I have never been sure I believed in the novel as an art form. I'm kidding. Or half kidding. Do you think poets make good novelists? I think they require such different skills...

[god_andthe_muse]

I think it depends entirely on the poet. For example, James Joyce was much more of a poet, but his stories were riveting. Thomas Pynchon is actually a philosopher, but "Gravity's Rainbow" is a masterpiece. Tolkien had a poet's heart and understood the beauty of words. The small sample I've read from you on which I can judge, I believe you'd write a fascinating novel- it wouldn't make a bestseller, of course. Your style is too sophisticated for a mass audience. But in circles, it would be revered.

[nihilicious]

Who were you reading when you wrote this?

and to yell nasty verse!

[shuck_spit]

Ouch! Immediately before? An essay on Whitman by Yingling. Before that? I was suffering through rhetorical grammar. I know, I know - I'm probably incapable of producing anything of value in iambs.

You know what was probably the immediate inspiration? Elizabeth Bachinsky's "She Is Blond Sin", which is about a third of the way down http://robmclennan.blogspot.com

...and which ends:

Baby my every limb seeks this state... hide, eh? His
Deep kiss taunts singly. Ding! Had I shod a bi
Dancer (post Streisand) taut and low--oh
Woo! What a dish! And to yell nasty verse!

Re: and to yell nasty verse!

[nihilicious]

Sorry, didn't mean for it to come across so snarky. I just meant that, last time I noiced you changed you language use, you said it came from reading "Good Poems" and "The Male Muse". This one now has a different rhythm, sort of sing-songy, and I was wondering if you were influenced by something you read.

Nasty verse indeed. :)

Re: and to yell nasty verse!

[shuck_spit]

Ding!

[herb_lehman]

I read the poem before reading the subject line, and was surprised to see it's an excerpt. It stood up well on its own, I thought.

[shuck_spit]

Thanks - I'm glad you like it. But there's no real visual to it yet... i feel like there ought to be a description.