[stylist] FW: Poetry Daily's Poet's Pick April 1, 2009

[John Lee Clark]

April being the poetry month, Poetry Daily will be emailing out to all of
its subscribers every day of this month with a differen't Poet's Pick, in
which a well-known poet chooses someone else's poem and discusses it
briefly.  The following is the first one  Let me know if you want me to
continue forwarding these daily picks for this month or not.

On a side note, e.e. cummings reminds me of a deafblind poet I know.  His
name is Timothy Cook but he goes by the nom de guerre of De yester, and he's
one fine, fine poet!

Here's today's Poet's Pick.

Linda Pastan's Poetry Month Pick, April 1, 2009 

["Buffalo Bill's defunct"]
by e. e. cummings (1894-1962)


Buffalo Bill’s
              defunct
                         who used to
                          ride a watersmooth-silver
                                                                  stallion
              and break onetwothreefourfive pigeons just like that

 
Jesus
               he was a handsome man
                                                and what i want to know is
               how do you like your blueeyed boy
               Mister Death
     

 *<http://www.poems.com/images/mailout/brown_block.gif> Linda Pastan
Comments: 
I am often irritated by poems which seem to use unconventional syntax and
punctuation for no particular reason, but Cummings knew just what he was
doing. He makes the reader’s eye work down the broken page. He makes a
subtle statement by using a small “i” for himself, while Death, Jesus, and
Buffalo Bill  get capitals.  This poem  acknowledges Death’s power (if
Buffalo Bill can die, I guess we all will die after all)  but at the same
time thumbs its nose at it, bringing Death down to size.  “How do you
like…?” usually implies a negative answer—perhaps somewhere Buffalo Bill is
outshooting even death! Some think that by using the adjective “defunct”
instead of “dead, ”  Cummings is also bringing Buffalo Bill down to size,
perhaps denigrating the whole tawdry culture the wild west had become, but
that’s not the poem’s effect on the reader.  For us it moves as swiftly as
Buffalo Bill himself: “onetwothreefourfive pigeons just like that,” as
smoothly as that wonderful “watersmooth-silver” stallion.  I have always had
a particular affection for this poem, and I named one of my own poems
“Death’s Blue Eyed Girl” after it.

 <http://www.poems.com/images/mailout/brown_block.gif> About Linda Pastan:
Linda Pastan is the author of twelve books of poetry, the latest of which,
Queen of a Rainy Country, was published by Norton in 2006. She was Poet
Laureate of Maryland from 1991-95 and has been a finalist twice for the
National Book Award. In 2003, she won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.

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