Jose Padua: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Made in America

 

If I were a less sane person I would probably stalk

Zoey Deschanel. After stalking her from nine to five,

I would come back home to my wife and daughter

and tell them about my day. “I stalked Zoey, but I

 

never saw her,” I’d say. “You’re just not trying hard

enough,” my wife would reply, “don’t give up.” After

glaring at me for a moment my daughter would say,

“Why don’t you just find a real job? No one’s going

 

to pay you to stalk Zoey Deschanel.” So I’ll tell her

about fame, about the things in this world that aren’t

real and the rain and the empty river in a dream. “I’m

not doing this for money,” I’ll explain, and she’ll turn

 

away from me and back to her strawberries, pulling

a plump red cone from the blue bowl on the table.

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Jose Padua’s first book, A Short History of Monsters, was chosen by Billy Collins as the winner of the 2019 Miller Williams Poetry Prize and is out from the University of Arkansas Press. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have appeared in many publications. He has read his work at Lollapalooza, CBGBs, the Knitting Factory, the Public Theater, the Living Theater, the Nuyorican Poets' Café, the St. Mark's Poetry Project, the Split This Rock festival, and many other venues. After spending the last twelve years in Washington DC and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, he and his family have moved slightly north to Lancaster, PA.    [Author photo by Maggie Padua, Oct. 2022; this poem originally appeared in Live Mag! #17]

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                                                 Zoe Deschanel mural on an abandoned brewery in East Berlin

Comments

[Bernard Welt]

Who abandons a brewery?!

I'm always glad to see a new sonnet that explores how weird love is, and how weird sonnets can get :-)

[lally]

what bernie said

[Denise Duhameld]

Terrific sonnet! Love the dreaminess and contemplation of what a "job" is--especially the "job" of a poet following his obsession.

[clarinda]

I thoroughly agree with Bernie. I love this poem, not JUST because it's a terrific contemporary sonnet, but not NOT for that reason either. Wow. a wondrous poem.

[clarinda]

PS to Terence et al: Tell us about the creation of the painting and the photoshopping that gave Mistress Luscious Lips 2 elbows on her left arm.

[Terence Winch]

Clarinda: Everything I know is in the caption.

[Geoffrey Himes]

The saddest, bravest, most arrogant, most obsessive words ever spoken: "I'm not doing this for the money."

[Grace Cavalieri]

The human mind made this poem, and I am in love with it.

[Peter Kearney]

When we speak of sonnets, I cannot help recalling "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee Jr., a poem I effortlessly learned by heart and recite to myself every now and then. I think also of what I believe to be the original text of I Corinthians 15:6-7 -- "He appeared above to 500 brothers, once and for all to all the apostles."

[David Lehman]

You're done it again, Terence. Excellent poem paired with excellent choice of illustration. Kudos!

[Terence Winch]

David: Glad you think so.

[Eileen]

Wonderful poem and great artwork. Love it. 💚

[Elinor Nauen]

How is it possible that every single week you post my all-time favorite poem? And then you do it again.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Elinor. Your comment is the kind that makes it feel worthwhile.

[Diane Ward]

Thanks for the great sonnet, Jose & Terence.

[Diane Ward]

. . . Zooey, Zoe, or Zoey and poetry, vocation, or love . . .
Nice author photo, too.