Sometimes the beauty of free verse by Tess Gallagher takes your breath away. I find that Tess' poetry strikes more chords with women than with men. Happy early Valentines day!
RAIN SOAKED VALENTINE... Tess Gallagher
As if some child, unwilling to shut even
the figurative heart into pocket or
lunch pail, had carried it plate-like
home in a downpour. A passionate
migration - no matter its redundant shape
and thirty others just as crude. The passage
did it good, white lace bleeding, the stock
message smudged out of language by rivulets
and soaring. It came with a lunge,
earnestness of moment, refusing
to be merely "sufficient" as in prudent love -
the effect guaged before the gift.
Anciently worn to trash on its way to me, it
doesn't care if I am moonlight. Just arriving
is candor, is courting.
4 comments:
I LOVE that.
Quid,
I was not familiar yet with Tess' poetry.
But I, too love this poem!
Raven
Oh, God, I fell in love with Tess's poetry almost the minute I got into Raymond Carver, her poet-writer-lover who died at age 50. Such a tragic love affair!!! I have so many of both of their books, I can't count them. If you haven't read Raymond Carver's collection of short stories entitled "Cathedral" then I insist that you get it TODAY! The title story just blew my mind and has been with me ever since I read it many, many years ago.
Fabulous post, Quid! We might get some snow today...of all days I have a dr. appt! OY! Blessings, dear friend.
PS: Here's a pic of the Raymond and Tess:
http://www.whitman.edu/english/carver/rc2.html
Lovely!
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