Thursday, December 27, 2007
"Goodbye, Body" by Sandy Taylor
Sandy Taylor, best known as a publisher and advocate for poetry, was also a very fine poet himself. A sample:
GOODBYE, BODY
Tree
on which I’ve carved
a few victories
and a thousand defeats,
old map,
scar on my leg
long as Chile,
broken knuckle
that shortened a finger,
city of distress
etched on my face
and forehead
like scratches on birchbark,
Thank you for your
kind shelter,
your hilarious jokes,
your nerve-endings
where pain warned me
of your reasonable
limitations.
What a pal you’ve been!
If you forgive my excesses,
my wild longings,
the way I’ve let life
beat you
like some dumb animal,
I’ll forgive you
the thousand tight spots
you put me in
with your excess
of hormones, your
abundance of
kinetic energy,
your mad dreams
that propelled me
through the night.
- by Sandy Taylor
With thanks to Bob Clawson
GOODBYE, BODY
Tree
on which I’ve carved
a few victories
and a thousand defeats,
old map,
scar on my leg
long as Chile,
broken knuckle
that shortened a finger,
city of distress
etched on my face
and forehead
like scratches on birchbark,
Thank you for your
kind shelter,
your hilarious jokes,
your nerve-endings
where pain warned me
of your reasonable
limitations.
What a pal you’ve been!
If you forgive my excesses,
my wild longings,
the way I’ve let life
beat you
like some dumb animal,
I’ll forgive you
the thousand tight spots
you put me in
with your excess
of hormones, your
abundance of
kinetic energy,
your mad dreams
that propelled me
through the night.
- by Sandy Taylor
With thanks to Bob Clawson
