Mark Wunderlich: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Proposition

 

That the smell of cows drifting through the open window is, indeed, that of a living beast.

That I too am a living beast.

That the body I possess is inhabited only by me.

That my body is neither at rest nor occupied by dramatic motion.

That I am, by my best account, fully alive.

That the room in which I am seated is in Germany, in a town called Worpswede.

That a poet I admire once lived here too, though he is long since dead.

Rilke wrote, “That I gently wipe away the look of suffered injustice sometimes hinders the pure motion of spirits a little.”

That there are such things as “spirits.”

That we were born suffering, but that we are not meant to suffer.

That the wind blows and the birches outside my window sing a little.

And that cooing and chucking of the dove I hear is also a kind of song.

That the difference between the living and the dead is mostly one of conjugation.

Er starb. Er istgestorben.  Ein gestorbenes Mensch.

That what we make when we speak is a kind of music, but disjointed and that music seeks

a unity that our speech does not possess.

Once I felt as though I was dead, but now the reasons for that feeling baffle me.

I marvel at what it is to feel the sun on my skin.

“Burnish,” is the word that comes into my head.

“Burnished by the sun,” as if my torso was a copper shield.

That my torso is a kind of shield protecting the inside from the outside.

Though we all know we are penetrable in many ways.

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Mark Wunderlich is the author of four books of poems, the most recent of which is God of Nothingness, published in 2021 by Graywolf Press.  His other titles include The Earth Avails, which received the Rilke Prize, Voluntary Servitude, and The Anchorage, which received the Lambda Literary Award.  He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Amy Lowell Trust, and elsewhere and has published individual poems in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The Nation, Poetry, The Paris Review, and The New York Times Magazine  He serves as the director of the Bennington Writing Seminars graduate writing program, and lives near the village of Catskill in New York's Hudson Valley.  

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   Jonathan Meese, DR. Z.U.K.U.N.F.T. FÜHRT, WIE SAU, COOL COOLISM… (ZEDADDY), 2017. Acrylic, Caparol-dispersion binder and mixed media on canvas; 2 panels.

Comments

[lally]

beautiful selection terence, mark wunderlich has a new fan

[Emily Fragos]

What a stunning beauty from the great Mark Wunderlich. Bravo!

Thank you, Terence, for this fine selection and presentation.

[Don Berger]

A supple and essential string of confirmations here, leading the reader to want to pause and add their own sequel. Glad to find this on Terence's great Sunday site.

[Indran Amirthanayagam]

I
I feel and think I "understand" this proposition somewhere in the flow of blood through the sluice gates of the mind. Thank you poet of wonder, Poet beyond the prison of reason.

Take Care

Indran

Indran Amirthanayagam
Co-publisher, Beltway Editions (wwww.beltwayeditions.com)

[Sandra Rottmann]

Wunderlich's poem is Wunderbar

[Terence Winch]

Michael: Thanks for the comment.

[Terence Winch]

Don: thanks for the comment.

[Terence Winch]

Emily:  Thanks for your comment.

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

That Mark Wunderlich makes each repetition of “that” singular and special in his poem is obvious. That Wunderlich is a wonder of style and perspicacity is equally obvious. That “Proposition” is another home run choice of a poem by Terence Winch is no less obvious. That I used the clichéd adjective “home run” in deference to the National Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony today (July 24) in Cooperstown is not obvious but true. That Buck O’Neil and Bud Fowler were long overdue in being enshrined is wincingly obvious. That I plan to purchase Wunderlich’s GOD OF NOTHINGNESS today is joyously obvious. That Terence Winch keeps finding these marvelously apt paintings for his poem selections is obvious ... and perhaps occult. That my own repetition of “that” pays poor homage to Wunderlich’s inimitable skill at it should be, to all, obvious. Q.E.D.

[Terence Winch]

Earle: great comment. Thanks. (Glad you liked the painting.)

[Eileen]

Love everything about this poem. The accompanying art selections are terrific.

[Grace Cavalieri]

Declarations that shine in the dark!

[Terence Winch]

Eileen: glad you liked it.

[Clarinda]

This is a song I need to sing. Btw I am
Forwarding it to a German friend of mine who may love it or not. No matter; I love it!

[Denna Weber]

That I, too, am sometimes resting in cow manure
Given so lovingly by fellow bovines

[Bill Nevins]

Rilke wrote, “That I gently wipe away the look of suffered injustice sometimes hinders the pure motion of spirits a little.”

That there are such things as “spirits.”

This poem "Proposition" reminds me of the songs and Red Hand Files comments by Nick Cave, which I also admire and love. However Mark W has his own voice and approach. I would say he and Cave are proper colleagues.

This is my first taste of Mark W's work and I will be reading more, of course.
Thanks, Terence!

[Terence Winch]

Bill: you're welcome, mo chara.

[Peter Kearney]

My first reading of this entrancing poem surprised me, with line after line that I easily understood. The words "we all know" in the last line seem to describe almost all the lines above. At the same time, so much is covered: our senses and feelings, our experience of music and speech, our spiritual values, all treated with a simplicity that is captivating.

[Kyril Calsoyas]

Mr. Wunderlich's approach to disquisition is classic existentialism. He deliberately sways over the abyss resolving nothing, which of course is the point.

“He was free, free in every way, free to behave like a fool or a machine, free to accept, free to refuse, free to equivocate; to marry, to give up the game, to drag this death weight about with him for years to come. He could do what he liked, no one had the right to advise him, there would be for him no Good or Evil unless he thought them into being.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre

[Greg Masters]

Excellent. Delivers an impact.