David Beaudouin: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Annunciation

 

For my sins I live in the city of Baltimore

Immutable as it staggers into the sea   its crooked shore

Uncertain of any harbor, impure and beautiful

Like a cigarette butt in last night’s drink.

So must I also think like Poe with an aching head

Of dark and transcendent things that drift from those alleys

Follow us back to our little blue home.  Let these poems

Be our fiery word in these haunted streets, turning all shades

But our own to things as real as stone where we can read

Our death has not been written yet.  Even with monsters

At the edges, it is a map where we can live, this city they

Keep building as it falls, the water’s current carries everything

Away but what we feel, who we loved, where we went that

Night for crabs and beer.  It will never be more real than here.

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David Beaudouin, native to Baltimore, is a widely published poet and performer.  He was the founder of Tropos Press, Inc. (1976–2001), one of the region’s earliest and most respected alternative literary presses, as well as The Pearl (1980–2001), a Baltimore journal of the literary and "spontaneous" arts.  He served for more than a decade as a literary panelist for the Mayor's Committee on Arts and Culture and was instrumental in the creation of the Artscape Literary Arts Award, and additionally has created and hosted a number of public reading series in the area, most recently “Blabbermouth.” David also has collaborated with visual artists Thea Osato and Julia Kim Smith on multimedia projects, and has co-produced two documentary shorts, Fluid Movement and One Nice Thing. Published works include Ten Poems (1973), Gig (1976), Catenae (1989), Ode to Stella (1990), American Night (1992), and Human Nature (1995). Two new collections, After All (Bowerbox Press) and Some Odes and Others (UnCollected Press) will be published in 2024. [Author photo by Steve Parke.]

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                                                Mural art by Stefan Ways and Baltimore-based artist and activist Nether

Comments

[Abbie Mulvihill]

What a beautiful, authentic tribute to Baltimore. So much is captured in these few words. It’s a joy to read and re-read.

[Don Berger]

David covers it all, elevating his place without ignoring its starkness , it’s monstrous haunt. Cheers to you David, and you Terence for picking this wonderful song.

[Beth Joselow]

David is just the one to paint this true, and loving, portrait of my home town. It is haunting, as the city it describes. Well done!

[Clarinda]

I am overjoyed to see wonder David B’s baltimore poem here. Not only does it truly capture the heart and soul of B-more, but also it is a quiet miracle of canny use of internal rhyme. Wow. Slainte, lads David and Terence!

[Elinor Nauen]

Big fan of David's, love this poem, thanks for the poem & thanks as always to Terence for giving us pleasure every week.

[lally]

what a wonderful poem and post, thank you david and terence

[Gardner McFall]

A winning tribute to this special city. Elliott Coleman is smiling on you, David. Thank you, Terence!

[Sherman Alexie]

Such a great and witty first line that expands into a beautiful ode.

[Grace Cavalieri]

Oh I have missed David, last seen about 1977, but with great adoration. Yes, David rocks Baltimore with that poem. And I want "more please."
Also, our art curator aways makes me cry with gratitude.

[Bill Nevins]

Never more real! Bravo!

[Eileen Reich]

I love this beautiful poem.

[Bernard Welt]

This David Beaudouin guy is going places.
He is also staying in the same place.

[Phyllis Rosenzweig]

A wonderful ode to tough, gritty love. Thank you David and Terence.

[Chris MAson]

One of the all time best poems about Baltimore. It really captures the spirit of our city. And the mural is great too!

[Kit Robinson]

That is one beautiful poem.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Clarinda. I'm glad it gets your stamp of approval.

[Terence Winch]

Phyllis: Thanks for the comment.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Michael.

[Terence Winch]

You're very welcome, Gardner.

[Terence Winch]

Don: thanks for that comment.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks back to you, Elinor.

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

I love the double meaning of the poem’s title “Annunciation.” In Christian theology, it’s the Angel Gabriel’s announcement to the “Virgin” Mary that she would--through “immaculate conception” via the Holy Spirit, often depicted as a hovering dove (in Catholicism, the two-word term is a euphemism for no sex)--conceive and ultimately give birth to a son, Jesus (Luke 1:26-38). But the poem’s title is also an announcement by the poet, David Beaudouin, in describing and even defending his native city of Baltimore as he initially proclaims his “sins” and the implicit penance of having to live there. Three descending rhymes (“Baltimore,” “shore,” and “impure”) in the first three lines lead to a stark simile: “Like a cigarette butt in last night’s drink.” Much like Edgar Allan Poe, who was born in Boston but claimed Baltimore as his birthplace, Beaudouin makes the reader fall in love with the city despite its “monsters / At the edges.” His art is not artifice. It’s pictorial, not picturesque. Even his other rhymes (“drink” with “think” in lines 4-5, “own” with “stone” in line 9, “beer” with “here” in line 14) are so deftly placed that they avoid any hint of winking at the reader. The poem’s veracity is felt inescapably. “It will never be more real than here”: that last sentence also applies to the poem itself. (The poem made me rethink how I feel about Randy Newman’s own indelible take on the city in his song “Baltimore” from 1977--and even Nina Simone’s more lacerating rendition of the song from 1978.) I’ll end with an obvious “annunciation”: Beaudouin’s poem is also conceived unconventionally--and is equally unforgettable in its brilliant achievement.

[Terence Winch]

Earle: thanks for the great comment.