MetaChat - Charles Simic next US Poet Laureate!

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02 August 2007

Charles Simic next US Poet Laureate! Rejoice, rejoice! And if the village is empty, and the pigs all skinned and turned to sausage, plump and bloody, perhaps the butcher's girl, hairy-armed and lovely, will inspire us to great things, done well and truly, before she folds our arms for a quiet eternity under the stone. Rejoice!

post by: Groo the Wanderer at: 13:38 | 19 comments

And I hear he's from the same state that the previous poet came from. Donald Somethingorother, whose work I still like. Almost enough, apparently, to remember only his first name.

I need a coffee.

posted by MonkeyButter 02 August | 14:09

GOOD CHOICE

I thought Donald Hall was from NH.

posted by Miko 02 August | 14:18

Simic is from Yugoslavia, but moved to Oak Park, Illinois (suburb north of Chicago)in grade school, eventually attending Oak Park River Forest High School and graduating with my father.

posted by Hugh Janus 02 August | 14:19

YAY for Charles Simic!

Donald Hall was born in CT, but lives in NH on a farm originally belonging to his grandparents.

posted by initapplette 02 August | 14:43

Private Eye

To find clues where there are none,
That's my job now, I said to the
Dictionary on my desk. The world beyond
My window has grown illegible,
And so has the clock on the wall.
I may strike a match to orient myself

In the meantime, there's the heart
Stopping hush as the building
Empties, the elevators stop running,
The grains of dust stay put.
Hours of quiescent sleuthing
Before the Madonna with the mop

Shuffles down the long corridor
Trying doorknobs, turning mine.
That's just little old me sweating
In the customer's chair, I'll say.
Keep your nose out of it.
I'm not closing up till he breaks.

posted by box 02 August | 14:45

But I think Donald Hall just died, because his wife wrote a book about grieving for him. The Year of Magical Thinking. Or am I thinking of someone else?

posted by Miko 02 August | 14:49

Donald Hall's Without is about grieving for his late wife, Jane Campion. The Year of Magical Thinking is Joan Didion grieving about her late husband, John Gregory Dunne.

posted by box 02 August | 15:09

Dang, box, you just made me erase a whole paragraph. Nice work.

There was a review in Slate comparing The Year of Magical Thinking with William Styron's Darkness Visible, which comparison really resonates; it's apt to say Didion does for grief what Styron did for depression.

posted by Hugh Janus 02 August | 15:15

Jane Campion is the director of the movies The Piano and An Angel at My Table. Jane Kenyon (a wonderful poet herself) is Donald Hall's late wife.

posted by initapplette 02 August | 15:43

Dang, init, you're right. What's up with this deleted paragraph, Hugh?

Okay, so we planned a summertime picnic at the library. But the PR department, for some reason, decided to promote it as more of a cookout/barbecue kinda thing. And now everybody's freaking out because we don't have any grills, and I don't think we want to build a campfire in the middle of the day in August in Arkansas, and even if we did, we're not sure about liabilities or anything like that, and, all in all, several of my coworkers are kinda going nuts right now.

posted by box 02 August | 16:01

Almost enough, apparently, to remember only his first name.

I guess where he lives, too.

posted by MonkeyButter 02 August | 16:08

Yay!

I don't know why I like Simic; I'm not even sure I've read any of his poetry but I know that I do. I've a feeling that I've seen him live on a tour of the UK and he was good, but I'm not sure.

Anyway - Yay!

posted by seanyboy 02 August | 17:32

Also: Groo the Wanderer, where's the quote at the top of the page come from? Google doesn't give much away.

posted by seanyboy 02 August | 17:35

Hugh Janus is my sock puppet. I'm flattered that you thought my pastiche was a quote, but alas, it was only an attempt to convey what thoughts flooded my mind upon hearing of Mr. Simic's well-deserved ascension.

Have you read Dime Store Alchemy, Simic's illustrated essay on Joseph Cornell? Never was there a more perfect match of biographer and biographee, er, subject.

posted by Groo the Wanderer 03 August | 07:50

Listen, Groo, if it weren't for the occasional bumping-up-against of the posting limit, you wouldn't exist at all (well, maybe you'd exist, but you'd just be a joke). I can always forget your password. Who's the sockpuppet now, bitch?

And here you have the presumption to make book recommendations? That's my job, dammit!

I'm Hem'roid! I'm the leader!

posted by Hugh Janus 03 August | 07:56

Jane Campion died? This is the first i heard of it.
i'm struck.

posted by ethylene 03 August | 08:37

No no, Jane Kenyon is Donald Hall's late wife, not Jane Campion; all these names so close together, all these great talents. As far as I know, Jane Campion is still kicking.

That's what my erased paragraph was about, box; I had a paragraph that said exactly what yours did, even with the Campion/Kenyon mix-up, and on preview I was moved to delete it wholesale.

posted by Hugh Janus 03 August | 08:42

Yeesh, i just scanned it and didn't see initapplette's comment, twas struck, as i said.

Cheese dip?

posted by ethylene 03 August | 08:49

In a Velveeta jacuzzi? YES!

posted by Hugh Janus 03 August | 09:44

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