Poetry!

Hey, remember when this blog was going to be book reviews AND creative writing from me? Hilarious! However, I am moved to post a couple of actual poetry-related items. Don't worry, this won't take long.

First, go read this "Ode to the Semi-Colon" over at Theresa's blog, because it is AMAZING and I wish I had written it! Semi-colons are just beautiful. Like a mermaid on a rock, or a cat with a fluffy tail.

Second! In belated honor of Elizabeth Bishop's centenary yesterday, a wee snip of a poem I wrote for her and Wallace Stevens back during a self-imposed "Yeah, you should really read some 20th-century poetry" period several years ago, entitled...

Poets in Waiting Rooms

1.

Elizabeth Bishop

at the oral surgeon’s;

her waters run through

my land-locked aesthetic but no less so

does the word “maxillofacial.”

2.

Wallace Stevens

through three hours at the DMV,

on the last day of my period.

Here it is hard to love

the concrete over the abstract;

here I believe him the vague comfort

of the unreal.

Though with handfuls of ugly-

worded colors I have no doubt

Stevens would make this queue radiant

as lead and flaxseed imitating moonlight.