for Becky
Her clutter takes over on every surface:
overdue bills, last year’s Times crossword puzzles,
photos
of grandchildren — her rabbits! — junk mail,
poems
jotted in a happenstance notebook
buried
under sedimental detritus,
brief
ordinary poems brimming with play,
free
of all pretence, channelling Emily.
My
grime coagulates on a clear glass plate,
egg
or chicken proteins chemically bonded
to
frozen oceans of concentric sandstone.
She
holds it up in my face. You call this
washed?
Sprat
and spouse, as married as we can handle.
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John Oliver Simon is one of the legendary poets of the Berkeley Sixties who has remained true to his calling. Published from Abraxas to Zyzzyva, his last book was Caminante (2002) which Gary Snyder blurbed as "a major poem." He is also a distinguished translator of contemporary poetry from Latin America, who received an NEA Fellowship for his work with the great Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas (1917-2011). He is Artistic Director of Poetry Inside Out, a program of the Center for the Art of Translation, and is River of Words 2013 Teacher of the Year.
Bay Laurel / Volume 2, Issue 3 / Autumn 2013
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John Oliver Simon is one of the legendary poets of the Berkeley Sixties who has remained true to his calling. Published from Abraxas to Zyzzyva, his last book was Caminante (2002) which Gary Snyder blurbed as "a major poem." He is also a distinguished translator of contemporary poetry from Latin America, who received an NEA Fellowship for his work with the great Chilean poet Gonzalo Rojas (1917-2011). He is Artistic Director of Poetry Inside Out, a program of the Center for the Art of Translation, and is River of Words 2013 Teacher of the Year.
Bay Laurel / Volume 2, Issue 3 / Autumn 2013