Happy Sunday, all!
As fellow readers, book lovers, and writers, I know you have authors and books in your back pocket that you find yourself returning to from time to time. Maybe it’s an annual thing, maybe it’s when you’re having a rough time, or are in a creative slump. For me, one of those writers is David Dodd Lee… I’m finally getting around to really digging deep into his second collection of John Ashbery erasure poems, And Others, Vaguer Presences: A Book of Ashbery Erasure Poems, and reviewing it. I’ve read the collection before, right after its release, but not with the space and attention I wanted—so really, this review, going up tonight, is a long time coming.
In the meantime, here are a few poems I particularly love and praise from the collection:
HUNGRY AGAIN
I shout
stars
The rain
appears
to know
this
It has
not come
to take
me
to God
God is
at your house,
a
dark
wind swept
storm
a mind-crystal
COUSIN SARAH’S KNITTING
You keep asking me that
Trust me I think
nobody
is
that nice
Pulled from space
after they examined
her
no one
living
understood
Then
it was all
a longing in the loins
I was going
to remind you of the story
of the overfed
One got off
The other was dazed
By the time
it was summer again
somebody’s boy came up
and
wandered over
their reputations
TO REDOUTE
To true roses uplifted on the bilious tide of evening
And morning glory
seeds:
I am
light forever
Or back into
night,
magenta
in
the grave
ABSENT AGENDA
To be old
isn’t a bad idea One is
king
wetting
the sky,
shaking
Crying?
I know it’s none of my business, but
dreams are
good, a planet
tiled with
fabric,
feathery to the touch
as though autumn had fallen off
an animal,
one as distinctive
as some grand occasion
or event
no one recognizes anymore
SUMMER
There is that sound
like forgetting
somebody
time hardly seen
the twigs of a tree
the trees of a life
We, among all others
And suddenly,
to be dying
a little mindless construction
of pine needles
and winter
of cold stars
and summer
I step to a narrow ledge.
My face resembles
the one reflected in the water.
All poems appear in David Dodd Lee’s latest John Ashbery erasure poetry collection: And Others, Vaguer Presences: A Book of Ashbery Erasure Poems. Buffalo NY, BlazeVOX Books, 2017. It comes highly recommended, and is available here and here.
Image Credit: You can see the original, raw artwork over here!