Regular readers of this blog will know that I tend to follow the contemporary uses of Wallace Stevens. Most of this is of course trivial and/or incidental.
The blog, “Writing the Holocaust,” as of this morning has just two blog posts, one for March and one for April. But it’s of interest to me nevertheless. April’s is a longish entry giving “some cautions on writing Holocaust poetry.” It begins with Charles Reznikoff and makes reference to Holocaust verse by Snodgrass, Rich, C.K. Williams, et alia.
If I when my wife is sleeping and the baby and Kathleen are sleeping and the sun is a flame-white disc in silken mists above shining trees, — if I in my north room dance naked, grotesquely before my mirror waving my shirt round my head and singing softly to myself: “I am lonely, lonely. I was born to be lonely, I am best so!” If I admire my arms, my face, my shoulders, flanks, buttocks again the yellow drawn shades, —
Any one doing something and standing (Stein)
Pete's 90th
Immense dew (Stevens)
Holocaust verse
Who shall say I am not the happy genius? (WCW)
William Carlos Williams, “Danse Russe”
If I when my wife is sleeping
and the baby and Kathleen
are sleeping
and the sun is a flame-white disc
in silken mists
above shining trees, —
if I in my north room
dance naked, grotesquely
before my mirror
waving my shirt round my head
and singing softly to myself:
“I am lonely, lonely.
I was born to be lonely,
I am best so!”
If I admire my arms, my face,
my shoulders, flanks, buttocks
again the yellow drawn shades, —
Who shall say I am not