Roger Reeves: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cyclops and Balthazar

 

I was not a very good dog in my former life. I bit

My owner, James, often. When he prayed, I howled

His one eye opening. He said I sounded like a cyclops

That had fallen into a ravine. I heard raven.  As I said,

I was not a very good dog, more so a ravine

Bringing the howling darkness to my owner’s ears.

A raven that took flight only when watching the other ravens

Lift from the pines like scabs ripped open to reveal

What life runneth under. Towards the end of my life,

A donkey with a white flower and a crown of leaves

Befriended me at the edge of a field. At night,

His head moved “like a veil across the stars”

Revealing for me, for the first time, the stars.

Balthazar, the donkey, once, asked me if I ever thought

Of the consciousness of trees, their reflection

In the river. Or if there was an etiquette to dying.

I said, “stop that. You sound like a man

With his back to heaven.” He said, “someone will

Always have their back to heaven,” then walked

Into a pasture of sheep and died. “Goliath,

Goliath,” said the sheep’s bells around their necks.

“No,” I said. “Balthazar. It is Balthazar that has died.”

And when I called out to him behind the door of the house

Of the dead, the night called back in my own voice.

And I, like a good dog, ran toward it with both eyes closed.

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Roger Reeves is the author of King Me and the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and a 2015 Whiting Award, among other honors. Best Barbarian, his second book of poems, was a finalist for the National Book Award. His work has appeared in Poetry, The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and elsewhere. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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                                        Olayanju Dada, At the Lagos Dog-Show, acrylic and oil painting on cardboard panel, 2015

Comments

[Grace Cavalieri]

Between Roger Reeves and Olayanju Dada, I am in the stratosphere of love.

[Beth Joselow]

This poem contains a world and must be read over and over again. I applaud, Roger Reeves, with thanks to Terence.

[Bill Nevins]

ran toward it with both eyes closed

STUNNING poem
I am now your fan, Roger Reeves!
Thank you, Terence Patrick!

[lally]

damn, that's a treasure trove of a poem

[Terence Winch]

Beth: thanks for the comment.

[Denise Duhamel]

Roger Reeves is a one of a kind. His book Best Barbarian was the most exciting poetry book published in 2022. And I'm looking forward to his book of essays Dark Days coming out in August of this year. Extraordinary poem!

[Anne Harding Woodworth]

Balthazar will be back. He's smart enough to figure out how to arrange it. Any donkey who thinks of the consciousness of trees is here for good. It takes a dog to see that. Thank you for this poem.

[clarinda]

What Beth Joselow said. A deeply disturbing and oddly comforting poem.
Good dog.
Good donkey.
Great poet.

[Susan Campbell]

Terrific!

[Geoffrey Himes]

A great poem--and a reminder that poetry benefits from dialogue by its characters.

[Don Berger]

A remarkable story, like nothing I've read before. The speaker reports to us in such vivid terms in a landscape I can imagine pretty clearly, while the characters' interactions still shock. I've read it four times in this sitting and still feel like its power won't lessen no matter how many times I go back to it. How did the poet do it? Where did it come from--what sources? Thanks to Roger Reeves for writing this poem and to Terence for finding and sending it out to all of us. I'll start now to look for more of Reeves' work.

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

The frisson I received after reading Roger Reeves’ powerful poem was unshakable and, for me, even cinematic. I actually blinked after reading about “Balthazar, the donkey,” who “walked / Into a pasture of sheep and died.” I instantly thought: Roger Reeves saw the same movie I did as a nomadic, offbeat film-hungry teenager. It was AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, written and directed by Robert Bresson, and initially released in 1966. (If you didn’t see this film, Roger, feel free to lambast my presumption.) The poem’s eddy of mythological references (cyclops, a giant with only one, middle-of-the-forehead eye) and religious references (Goliath, the giant slain by David’s slingshot; also, “Balthazar” was the name of one of the three wise men, bringing myrrh, used as a cleansing incense or fragrance, to the newborn messiah) reinforces the notion of reincarnation suggested by Roger’s opening line: “I was not a very good dog in my former life. I hit / My owner, James, often.” The donkey Balthazar in Bresson’s film is also mistreated, responding to each instance with seeming stoicism about a life lacking self-agency. In “Cyclops and Balthazar” Roger Reeves renders all, including a highly reactive raven, with deft brushstrokes. Bresson once said: “I’d rather people feel a film before understanding it. I’d rather feelings arise before intellect.” Roger Reeves’ magnificent poem summons both emotion and understanding, both feeling and thinking, in near simultaneity of effect that even Bresson would have bowed down before. Thanks, Terence, for once again bringing a sui generis poet to my attention. Whatever divining rod you’re using, keep it in a safe place.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks back to you, Don.

[Terence Winch]

Great commentary. Thanks, Earle.

[Doug Pell]

The life that runneth under this poem burns with a powerful flame. I am changed a little for reading it. Thank you Terence once again for sharing great poetry with me and the world.

[Terence Winch]

Doug: Thanks for the comment.

[mike]

Wow that was awesome! I'm going to read it again at night.