It was such a pleasure to see the poems you brought last time, I’d like to try another version of that this week. But instead of bringing your favorite poems, I’d like you to bring poems you have questions about, poems you can’t get in focus, poems you circle around without ever quite getting in. I can’t promise answers, but maybe seeing them from different angles will help you put the pieces together in a way that makes sense to you. I’ll start us off with a poem by Dean Young, a well-known poet I’ve always been drawn to but never read closely. I’m about to do that, so I have all kinds of questions about how to read his poems. The most helpful thing will be reading other poems of his, whole books, but I think talking with you about this one will be a good start.
If your poems lose the formatting when you post them in comments, email them to me and I’ll see if I can do it in a post. As always, I’m looking forward to discussing all of them during this week’s Fridays at 4 (eastern time).
ELEGY ON A TOY PIANO
Dean Young
for Kenneth Koch
You don’t need a pony
to connect you to the unseeable
or an airplane to connect you to the sky.