"The Trouble with David Lehman Is" [poem by Ken Lauter]

(ed note: Today is David Lehman's birthday and this poem, which came in "over the transom," seems just right! Thank you Ken Lauter. sdl)

The Trouble with David Lehman Is

that he’s like a huge hurricane spun up
in the Atlantic Ocean of Erudition
or he’s just a fucking non-stop reader

who blows in on our Coast of Lethargy
with a new introduction to a new BAP
that shreds our sheds of poetic assumptions

and prejudices and leaves us gasping for
poems, poems, and more poems which
Mr. Lehman, thank god, promptly delivers.

                               -- Ken Lauter

Comments

[Emily Fragos]

Have a very happy June birthday, David Lehman. Eat cake and ice cream to your heart's content.
Enjoy this sunny day entirely to your liking. Happy birthday to you!

[David Lehman]

Thank you, Emily Fragos -- for this comment, for your poem that Terence picked, and for all your contreibutions to the BAP blog.

[Emily Fragos]

Terence did such a superb job of presentation and of choosing such a wonderful painting. The entire experience was enjoyable and gratifying, thanks to Terence and the generosity of your many readers.

[Dickens's Dora]

I've published eight in the last nine. I'm not a writer who sticks to the first seven. Even so, I believe that three of the next embolden me to publicize six of the previous five and I would acknowledgethe efforts of my team through four of the last three plus one have nothing whatsoever to do with this post, this blog, art nouveau, art deco, Art Tatum, King Arthur or the Alongquin round table. Thank you for understanding and be sure to read "Our Mutual Friend" and "Bleak House" before turning in.