Thursday, April 21, 2011

April is National Poetry Month-and almost over

Who keeps track of this stuff? Someone at book group last night mentioned that April was also Jazz Appreciation Month. Cue Coltrane, somebody.

Anyways, I do like poetry when I understand it and reading the local library's blog clued me in that you can sign up for the poetry of the day email from the National Poetry Foundation.

Here is today's poem by Matthew Zapruder. I experience my literature primarily, in fact nearly exclusively, visually so I like the image of the typewriter key necklace:

Today in El Paso all the planes are asleep on the runway. The world
is in a delay. All the political consultants drinking whiskey keep
their heads down, lifting them only to look at the beautiful scarred
waitress who wears typewriter keys as a necklace. They jingle
when she brings them drinks. Outside the giant plate glass windows
the planes are completely covered in snow, it piles up on the wings.
I feel like a mountain of cell phone chargers. Each of the various
faiths of our various fathers keeps us only partly protected. I don’t
want to talk on the phone to an angel. At night before I go to sleep
I am already dreaming. Of coffee, of ancient generals, of the faces
of statues each of which has the eternal expression of one of my feelings.
I examine my feelings without feeling anything. I ride my blue bike
on the edge of the desert. I am president of this glass of water.
 

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