Matthew Rohrer: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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News of the Dead Pope

 

Out of a window musical notes float in single file

past the windbreak of sage-colored trees.

 

The notes are black with mourning. Black birds

hang in the stillness over the courthouses

and other sacred buildings.

 

At the lake a child notices the sound as if it were coming from the ground,

out of a strange nautical cellar nearby.

 

The news travels quickly on such a clear day,

through the clouds shaped like Valkyries,

the clouds swinging swords.

 

On the child’s screened-in porch a radio lights up.

It is old and made of wood;

nevertheless it rises to the occasion.

 

The child, who heard everything

including the bankers sobbing in the chapel across the lake,

 

thought he might play saxophone when he grew up.

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Matthew Rohrer is the author of ten books of poems, most recently The Sky Contains the Plans, published by Wave Books. His book-length poem The Others won the 2017 Believer Book Award. His book A Green Light was shortlisted for the Griffin International Poetry Prize. “News of the Dead Pope” is from his first book, A Hummock in the Malookas, which won the National Poetry Series and was published by W.W. Norton in 1995. He attended universities in Ann Arbor, Dublin, and Iowa City, and then moved to Brooklyn, and that is where you will find him from now on. [For more information on, and poems by, Matt Rohrer, click here.]

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Comments

[David Lehman]

Terrific title -- and the poem lives up to it. Kudos.

[Grace Cavalieri]

So glad Rohrer is back in sight with his surprises, every line, especially getting us from one to the other. He always comes home far from where he began. We go too.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Grace. Matt is truly inventive.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, David. You can't miss with dead popes.

[Mike]

Awesome poem 👏

[Jesse Winch]

Great poem. Why would you not play the saxophone?

[Terence Winch]

I'm glad you think so, Micheál.

[Terence Winch]

That is the question the poem leaves you with.

[Tina Eck]

Very wonderful

[Maureen Owen]

Smashing last line! Great poem! Hats off to Matthew! It made me laugh which came like a surprise gift this morning.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Tina. I'm glad you think so.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks so much for your comment, Maureen. Glad you liked it.

[Meg Kearney]

Love the pacing and surprises of this poem. What a delight! BRAVO.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Meg. It's a mighty poem, I agree.

[Eileen Reich]

Great poem

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for your comment, Eileen.

[Don Berger]

Wonderful that drives a writer to sit down and try to perceive and sing with the same power that Matt Rohrer does! Thanks to Terence for bringing this great poet within range of us again!

[Don Berger]

Correction!

Wonderful POEM that drives a writer to sit down and try to perceive and sing with the same power that Matt Rohrer does! Thanks to Terence for bringing this great poet within range of us again!