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« BAP 2012 West Coast Launch Reading November 8 | Main | The poetry Olympics by Kate Gale »

October 23, 2012

On Self-Pity: D. H. Lawrence and Kenneth Koch duke it out

D. H. Lawrence
Self Pity

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

Kenneth Koch
I Like Rats

I never saw a rat
Sorry for itself.
I never saw two rats
Consoling one aniother for being rats.

Rats live good full rat-lives with other rats.
Rat mind and rat heart plunge them into rat sex with
       other impassioned rats.
People say they are poison and ugly and cause disease.
I say people cause disease.
I never caught a cold or syphillis or gonorrhea or
       manic depression from a rat. 

Posted by on October 23, 2012 at 07:17 PM |

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ICYMI

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"Lively and affectionate" Publishers Weekly

Radio

I left it
on when I
left the house
for the pleasure
of coming back
ten hours later
to the greatness
of Teddy Wilson
"After You've Gone"
on the piano
in the corner
of the bedroom
as I enter
in the dark


from New and Selected Poems by David Lehman

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