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

[Barbara Hammel]

John
I'd sure be interested in seeing them.  Is this something they do every day 
or just this month because it's National Poetry Month?
Barbara

If wisdom's ways you wisely seek, five things observe with care:  of whom 
you speak, to whom you speak, and how and when and where.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "John Lee Clark" <johnlee at clarktouch.com>
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 4:34 PM
To: "John Lee Clark" <johnlee at clarktouch.com>
Subject: [stylist] FW: Poetry Daily's Poet's Pick April 1, 2009

> 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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>
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