Cover
Click image to order
Never miss a post
Your email address:*
Name: 
Please enter all required fields
Correct invalid entries

Search

Categories

Archives

More...

Author Archives

« The Virtual Poetry Conference [by Nin Andrews] | Main | Tim Dlugos [by Terence Winch] »

September 04, 2020

"Ode to Weird" [by Elaine Equi]

Emily Dickinson was weird.
Fernando Pessoa was definitely weird.

All poets are weird
even when their poems
try to appear normal.

Macbeth’s weird sisters
stirring up trouble’s
unsavory soup:

“Just be yourself
and you’ll be king.”

Weird always wins and loses in the end.

Ed note: "Ode to Weird" is from The Intangibles by Elaine Equi (Coffee House Press, 2019). The poem's conceit is fresh and witty, a wonderful "poetry idea." The stanza breaks are critical -- delete them and see what you lose. The lesson is that in her rejuvenation of minimalism as a strategy, Equi makes maximum meaning-making use of spacing and lining. -- DL

Elaine Equi

Posted by on September 04, 2020 at 10:07 PM in Book Recommendations, Feature, Poems |

| |

Comments

The marvelous pendulum!

Posted by: Elena Byrne | September 05, 2020 at 03:28 PM

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by:  | 

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)

ICYMI

Cover
click image to order your copy
That Ship Has Sailed
Click image to order
BAP ad

Cover
"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

StatCounter

  • StatCounter