Ron Padgett: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ron Padgett by Siobhán Padgett, 2020

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Morning

 

Who is here with me?

My mother and an Indian man.

(I am writing this in the past.)

The Indian man is not a man,

but a wooden statue just outside

the limits of wood. My mother

is made of mother. She touches

the wood with her eyes and the eyes

of the statue turn to hers, that is,

become hers. (I am not dreaming.

I haven’t even been born yet.)

There is a cloud in the sky.

My father is inside the cloud,

asleep. When he wakes up, he

will want coffee and a smoke.

My mother will set fire

to the Indian and from deep inside

her body I will tell her

to start the coffee, for even now

I hear my father’s breathing change.

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Ron Padgett’s How Long was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry and his Collected Poems won the LA Times Prize for the best poetry book of 2014 and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. His translations include Zone: Selected Poems of Guillaume Apollinaire and Blaise Cendrars’ Complete Poems. Padgett has collaborated with artists Joe Brainard, Jim Dine, Alex Katz, George Schneeman, and Trevor Winkfield. Seven of his poems were used in Jim Jarmusch’s film, Paterson. His most recent collection is Big Cabin (Coffee House Press). ["Morning," from Collected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2013), is used by permission; © 2013 by Ron Padgett.]

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 (L-R) Jim Jarmusch, Ron Padgett, and Adam Driver attend the New York Special Screening of Amazon Studios and Bleecker Street's "Paterson" at Landmark Sunshine Theater on December 15, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

 

Comments

[Clarinda harriss]

I love Ron Padgett and I love this poem. Great photo too. Thx Terence!

[John Yau]

I ditto the above--ditto ditto ditto.

[Howard Bass]

Wonderful poem--thank you, Terence.

[Beth]

Splendid, gentle, steep. So glad to see this poem here.

[Don Berger]

This fable is characteristically fabulous work from Ron Padgett, whose poems I've loved since first learning of him from James Tate in the late seventies. His translation of Cendrars is my Bible and will always be (I own two copies, just in case!). In this poem "Morning," myth marries history--imagination's in its highest gear, clarity and direct speech form the great groundwork, fun wins!

[Jiwon Choi]

I got goosebumps reading "My father is inside the cloud..." What deadly a combination of spare and smoldering this poem is.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Clarinda.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Beth.

[Terence Winch]

Don---thanks for that great comment.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Jiwon, for that comment.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, amigo.

[Matthew Rohrer]

Ron continues to be the best! I am in awe of this. And I love the photo with Jarmusch thanks Terence as always

[lally]

yay ron!

[Anne Harding Woodworth]

I love this poem. Not all mothers are made of mother. And I love the poem's course from the first question. This mother made of mother is the answer.

[Grace Cavalieri]

NOW I know what poetry is. I forgot for a moment until I read this.

He's always been at the top of the heap in my heart.

[Terence Winch]

Matt---I agree re Ron.

[Terence Winch]

Anne--thanks for the comment.

[Terence Winch]

Grace---thanks for the comment.

[Terence Winch]

Fabulous poem

On Sun, Jan 31, 2021, 5:32 PM t.p. Winch <[email protected]> wrote:

Grace---thanks for the comment.

[Casey]

I plan to share this with my wonderful creative writing students at the Delaware College of Art and Design. Thanks, Terance.

[Jack Skelley]

Simply beautiful. Thanks for this, Terence Winch!

[Terence Winch]

Jack!  Nice to hear from you after all these years.

[Jack Skelley]

...Would love to reconnect more fully at some point, Terence. And look at the tremendous readers you have here. (Amy G. turned me on to this particular post.) Bravo ! I just subscribed !

[Eileen]

So imaginative and mysterious- love this poem

[Terence Winch]

I'm glad you like it, Eileen.