On Persephone
Apr. 18th, 2011 07:08 amIf you like the Persephone myth and experimental/narrative/meta poems, you may want to give a read to Catherynne M. Valente's A Silver Splendour, A Flame.
Santa baby, just put an agent under my tree,
for me.
Been an awful good girl.
Santa baby, and hurry up that contract tonight.
( Rest of the poem. )
How to Live
"I don't know how to live."
–Sharon Olds
Eat lots of steak and salmon and Thai curry and mu shu
pork and fresh green beans and baked potatoes
and fresh strawberries with vanilla ice cream.
Kick-box three days a week. Stay strong and lean.
Go fly-fishing every chance you get, with friends
It's only in the choice acoustics
of shower and sealed car
that I can finally give voice
to that heart deep within me
that is pure, tonally perfect, music.
But when the water stops running
and the radio's off, I can remember
that day in class,
when I knew for the first time
that mine would be a world of words
without melody, where refrain
means do not join,
where I'm ready to sing
in a key no one has ever heard.