Of Poetry and Death
Alicia Ostriker
::: What better to put you in that brooding mood, besides a blustery beautiful island, a santorino, clouds kissing mountaintops with the moist lips of rain? :::
“In life the gaze of public opinion, the contrasts of interests, the struggle of greed all oblige people to keep quiet about their dirty linen, to disguise the rips and stitches, not to extent the world the revelations they make to their conscience. And the best part of the obligation comes when, by deceiving others, a man deceives himself, because in such a case he saves himself vexation, which is a painful feeling, and hypocrisy, which is a vile vice. But in death, what a difference! What a release! What freedom! Oh, how people can shake off their coverings, leave their spangles in the gutter, unbutton themselves, unpaint themselves, undecorate themselves, confess flatly what they were and what they’ve stopped being!… ” — Joaquim Maria Machjado de Assis, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas
The Drone
Get a move on
it says
every year,
day, hour, minute
keep going, keeping
up the good work, go on with
your task, it
never stops reminding me
how badly I am doing it
*
I have to straighten out
my love life first
get that on an even keel
I say, but it says
don’t fool yourself
love lives never get straightened out
they are by nature crooked
get back to work
you don’t have forever
*
Live to you now from the hypothalamus
here it comes again
the drone
at the base of my skull
or the voice of joy singing
duets with her partner death
same old task
gather grief like straw
spin it into praise
-- Alicia Ostriker
Meaningful phrases are as thrilling as meaningful glances
Sweet Sunday to you, loves
Graciousss
Tags: alicia, assis, bras, cubas, death, joaquim, literature, ostriker, Poetry