A Light In The Moon
Last week, a Large Hearted Boy got us thinking about all those sexy people we’re dying to date — writers who can sing, singers who can write. A few of these People Who Are Obnoxiously Talented At More Than One Thing include our imaginary boyfriend Ryan Adams. Adams has published a collection of poems entitled Hello Sunshine. (And while we’re talking about imaginary boyfriends, we can’t help but mention Blake Schwarzenbach, an English professor and singer who has a voice deeper than Crater Lake and poetic lyrics that will send the jets of your heart to Brazil.) Second up is David Berman of the Silver Jews. Berman put out a highly-acclaimed debut called Actual Air, which, we have to say, is really good poetry…
The Moon
by David Berman
A web of sewer, pipe, and wire connects each house to the others.
In 206 a dog sleeps by the stove where a small gas leak causes him
to have visions; visions that are rooted in nothing but gas.Next door, a man who has decided to buy a car part by part
excitedly unpacks a wheel and an ashtray.He arranges them every which way. It’s really beginning to take
shape.Out the garage window he sees a group of ugly children
enter the forest. Their mouths look like coin slots.A neighbor plays keyboards in a local cover band.
Preparing for an engagement at the high school prom,they pack their equipment in silence.
Last night they played the Police Academy Ball and
all the officers slow-danced with target range silhouettes.This year the theme for the prom is the Tetragrammaton.
A yellow Corsair sails through the disco parking lot
and swaying palms presage the lot of young libertines.Inside the car a young lady wears a corsage of bullet-sized rodents.
Her date, the handsome cornerback, stretches his talons over the
molded steering wheel.They park and walk into the lush starlit gardens behind the disco
just as the band is striking up.Their keen eyes and ears twitch. The other couples
look beautiful tonight. They stroll around listening
to the brilliant conversation. The passionate speeches.Clouds drift across the silverware. There is red larkspur,
blue gum, and ivy. A boy kneels before his date.And the moon, I forgot to mention the moon.
Poems By Berman
However, when we read today’s poetry news, we started thinking about People Who Are Obnoxious and Not Talented At More Than One Thing, like Jewel. According to Jim Behrle, Jewel is one of the best-selling poets of the last twenty-five years. Her publicist even proposed an event where she would be interviewed by former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. We just hope Jewel isn’t crooning to American poetry when she sings “You Were Made for Me.”
On Sunday night, a chamber-work musical called “Songs of Wars I Have Known,” which is based on the writing of Gertrude Stein, swept through the city of Seattle. The performance was called “a rare and stunning performance of musical poetry.” Yes, right here in Seattle we have a prime example of poetry-meets-music and it’s the kind that makes us want to end with a sound-drenched poem about magnificent asparagus. –Lori Huskey
A Light In The Moon
by Gertrude Stein
A light in the moon the only light is on Sunday. What was the sensible decision. The sensible decision was that notwithstanding many declarations and more music, not even notwithstanding the choice and a torch and a collection, notwithstanding the celebrating hat and a vacation and even more noise than cutting, notwithstanding Europe and Asia and being overbearing, not even notwithstanding an elephant and a strict occasion, not even withstanding more cultivation and some seasoning, not even with drowning and with the ocean being encircling, not even with more likeness and any cloud, not even with terrific sacrifice of pedestrianism and a special resolution, not even more likely to be pleasing. The care with which the rain is wrong and the green is wrong and the white is wrong, the care with which there is a chair and plenty of breathing. The care with which there is incredible justice and likeness, all this makes a magnificent asparagus, and also a fountain.
Video: Footage of Gertrude Stein
