Dean Young: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Archaic Torso of Me Too

 

There was the guy in the next room

screaming he wanted some goddamn sugar.

There was the lady who my first night

conscious tried to get me to pray while

a falcon-headed shade carried off

my biowaste, hexes welting the walls—

she was also a hallucination.  How

I was strapped to the face of a sundial,

names of drugs like archangels,

the breathing machine pulling in

an Army-Navy game and tolling

like Big Ben. Hovering beside me,

another me entirely free of pain

like the idea of a rainbow beside

a fading rainbow.  Huff of alcohol,

fentanyl, urine, red beets.  The one

I made leave because he couldn’t stop

acting triumphant.  It wasn’t only death

in costume.  But always there was my darling

who’d kiss me even though the pulse-spike

would bring nurses running.

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Dean Young was born in Columbia, Pennsylvania, the very place that Coleridge and Southey were thinking of founding their commune.  Maybe.  He is also maybe currently living in Cincinnati where he is trying to fit a two-bedroom house into a loft apartment.  His, hopefully next book, completing his IT’S ALIVE!! Trilogy, Creature Feature is almost finished.  Then from there on in it’s all petal drop blast radius.

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Saint Elizabeth of Hungary bringing food for the inmates of a hospital. Oil painting by Adam Elsheimer, ca. 1598           

Comments

[Bill Nevins]

This poem is a stunner. If we must suffer and questionably heal, let us all be comforted by darlings who spike our pulses!

[Amy Gerstler]

Cannot wait for this master neo surrealist’s hopefully next book. How he manages so powerfully to fuse life and death direness, hallucination, the gritty holiness of quotidian things and the saving grace of humor into this heartbreaking, late-reveal love poem only the muses know!

[Diane Ward]

Ditto -- what Amy said above.
Thank you for the calm space of acceptance sketched so beautifully in "Archaic Torso of Me Too."

[Stacey]

You always delight me with your selections Terence. This one is a miracle. Thank you.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Stacey.

[Grace Cavalieri]

What a Sunday treat. Any hallucination with the Army-Navy Game has me.

[David Lehman]

Splendid from the title on. And what a beautiful painting you've chosen for it, Terence.

[Peter Kearney]

Can I think of this fascinating poem as a torso sandwich? Between two slices of clear English sentences comes a welter of hallucinations and impressions in jumbled phrases. If so, this sandwich comes with its own dessert, such a happy way to finish.

[Robert McDowell]

Good choice, Terence. I realized as I read I need 'welting' a 'connection between a breathing machine and an army-navy game,' and a 'huff of alcohol' in a poem. Thanks to Dean (& you) for the pick-me-up! Now, where is that nurse & what is she carrying in her arms?

[Clarinda harriss]

I’m almost physically stunned by this poem. It takes me over the top of my previous admiration of dean young’s work.

[Beth J.]

As in flickering light, until the glow of the last three lines.

[Mike Murphy]

There's always a goddamn guy in the next room screaming. Great poem.

[Terence Winch]

Robert: thanks for your response.

[Eileen]

Wonderful poem. A mixture of reality and hallucinations clearly pictured. The accompanying art is beautiful.

[Don Berger]

A remarkably acrobatic poem that opens our eyes wider with each turn into a new line. I've admired Dean Young's work for years, his capacity to laugh and ache both, often, as in this time, at the same time. Thanks for showing us this one, Terence!

[Christine]

Good poem!
I'm left wondering about the story of the guy who wanted a lil' sugar. Hope he's okay, too.

[Bernard Welt]

Thank you. The title alone has had me giggling for a couple of days.
At first I thought, "Man, if I see one more goddamned poem about St Elizabeth of Hungary . . . " but you made it work.

[lally]

nevin's nailed my response, as did all of the above

[Terence Winch]

Don: Thanks---glad you liked it.

[Phyllis Rosenzweig]

Wow. What a tough piece of work. Thanks! Phyllis

[Elinor Nauen]

Wow & wow to all the comments too. Thank you, Mr. Winch, for every week making my heart race.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Elinor. I'm glad you're out there.