May Day

Informationen zum Autor Phillis Levin is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. THE NEA grant was awarded in 2007. Klappentext A sensuous and musical new collection from acclaimed poet Phillis Levin May Day is a work of a visionary imagination. In tones playful and celebratory, in gestures both intimate and international, Levin's poems explore how tenderness and violence change our lives. From a flood overtaking the Prague zoo to the joy of a maypole dance, from a mural of the Trojan War in a Greek diner in New York to the "noiseless explosions" of time in the opening of a flower, these poems are rhapsodies of the senses and the intellect, disclosing new thresholds of meaning. BOY WITH A THORN Lo Spinario (bronze, late first century BCE) A long day, a long run, a long road And somewhere on it you felt a pang, Nothing more. A quiver of lightning, Nothing to stop for. Only now, As you sit on the stump of a blasted tree, Folding one leg over the other, Drawing it up until your ankle Strains against your knee, as you study The sole that is cradled in your hands— Only now do you notice a small hot rose Blushing under the skin, where a thorn Broke into flesh. And you recall That sudden twinge: a throb subsiding In a wave, spurring you on past all Those ochre hills, daring you to keep A steady pace though you were tired Of those hills, of pine after twisted pine Casting a net of needles in your path, Though a droning in your ears said The city would fall, that the warning You carried would never arrive. Once you were caught in a blinding Torrent of rain, but the sky stayed blue, Every other patch of land was dry, And the air surrounding you sharpened The horizon, though whatever was in reach Grew obscure. Later, as you crossed A familiar field, your fingertips Stirring the tall grass, your limbs Remembering a power that seemed to flow From the overturning chalice of the sun, A surprising coldness seeped Through your skin, and a sensation You did not welcome entered in. You brushed it aside and it was gone, And you went on. But it didn't go Anywhere, it was inside you, blooming... It is easy to remove the thorn, now That you can rest, easy to miss the valley You fled, its flock of shadows grazing On stone. But sometimes everything Remains hidden, there is nothing more Than a scene on an empty amphora, Nothing new, nothing worth noting, Until the speed of your body releases The resin in pine. If this is the first time You faltered in the middle of everything, It will not be the last. Today a thorn Is the cause. Sooner or later, There will be other things to draw Out of yourself to recover again Who you are. It will hurt to pluck it out, But you will think nothing of it: See, you are barely wounded. Later you will long to be that boy Whose only regret was having to stop Without wanting to, whose only care Was a path beaten in the dust Under his feet: a place where something Too slight to avoid, too minor To fear, too random to forsee Interrupted a journey Written in the whorls of your skin— As if your fate, anyone's fate Could be written or read. Zusammenfassung A sensuous and musical new collection from acclaimed poet Phillis Levin May Day is a work of a visionary imagination. In tones playful and celebratory! in gestures both intimate and international! Levin’s poems explore how tenderness and violence change our lives. From a flood overtaking the Prague zoo to the joy of a maypole dance! from a mural of the Trojan War in a Greek diner in New York to the “noiseless explosions” of time in the opening of a flower! these poems are rhapsodies ...

Product details

• Authors: Phillis Levin
• Publisher: Penguin Books USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 29.04.2008
• EAN: 9780143113942
• ISBN: 978-0-14-311394-2
• No. of pages: 96
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 213 mm x 8 mm
• Series: Penguin Poets
• Subject: Fiction > Poetry, drama