Kiss Off
Page 9
STEPHEN CRANE (1871–1900): Best known for his novel The Red Badge of Courage, he published one volume of poetry. He died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-nine.
CAROLYN CREEDON (1969– ): Creedon's poems have been included in the Best American Poetry series. She currently works as a waitress in San Francisco.
EMILY DICKINSON (1830–1886): One of the nineteenth century's greatest poets, Dickinson lived quietly at home in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her lawyer father. Only seven of her approximately one thousand poems were published during her lifetime.
GREGORY DJANIKIAN (1949– ): Originally from Alexandria, Egypt, he teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. His latest collection of poetry is called Years Later.
MARK DOTY (1953– ): Contemporary American poet, he has won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the T. S. Eliot Prize. His most recent collection is Source. He lives in New York City.
SHAWN M. DURRETT (1974– ): Born and raised in the hills of western Massachusetts, Durrett received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan. Her poem “Lures,” included here, won an Academy of American Poets Prize in 1998.
RICHARD EBERHART (1904– ): Minnesota-born poet, he has received the Bollingen Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award. He has taught at many universities in the United States.
DEBORAH GARRISON (1965– ): Garrison published A Working Girl Can't Win and Other Poems in 1998. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
DAVID GEWANTER is the author of In the Belly (U. Chicago Press, 1997), The Sleep of Reason (U. Chicago Press, 2003), and coeditor with Frank Bidart of The Collected Poems of Robert Lowell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003).
LOUISE GLüUK (1943– ): American poet whose collections have won both the Pulitzer Prize (1992) and the National Book Critics Circle Award (1985).
ROBERT GRAVES (1895–1985): British poet, novelist, and essayist, he was professor of poetry at Oxford from 1961 until 1966.
LOLA HASKINS (1943– ): She has published six books of poetry. Her most recent work is The Rim-Benders.
ROBERT HAYDEN (1913–1980): His first volume of poems was Heart-Shape in the Dust; his last collection was American Journal (1978). He taught at Fisk University and the University of Michigan.
ROBERT HERRICK (1591–1674): Considered to be one of the finest English lyric poets, he lived in London and Dean Prior, Devonshire.
SADIE LISK HIGHSMITH (1998– ): Sadie currently attends ArtsTogether, a preschool in Raleigh, North Carolina.
JANE HIRSHFIELD (1953– ): American poet who studied at the San Francisco Zen Center for eight years, she has translated several collections of Japanese poetry. Her works include The October Palace, The Lives of the Heart, and Given Sugar, Given Salt.
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844–1889): Although his poetry did not garner critical acclaim during his lifetime, he is now considered a major British poet.
LANGSTON HUGHES (1902–1967): The most important writer of the Harlem Renaissance, he published ten books of poetry, including Montage of a Dream Deferred. He lived in New York City.
JANE KENYON (1947–1995): She published four volumes of poetry, including Constance (1993). She lived at Eagle Pond Farm in New Hampshire until she died of leukemia in 1995.
GALWAY KINNELL (1927– ): Kinnell has won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
ETHERIDGE KNIGHT (1931–1991): Knight began writing poetry while he was incarcerated at Indiana State Prison. His book Poems from Prison received great critical acclaim in the United States.
KIM KONOPKA lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she writes and teaches poetry. Her work has won several awards and been extensively published.
PHILIP LARKIN (1922–1985): He was a highly influential British poet whose collections of poetry included The Less Deceived and High Window.
LYN LIFSHIN: Author of more than one hundred books, she has been Poet in Residence at the University of Rochester, Antioch, and Colorado Mountain College. Her most recent collection is Before It's Light.
ANDREW MARVELL (1621–1678): Known primarily as a satirist during his lifetime, he came to be considered a great poet only after his death.
CLAUDE MCKAY (1890–1948): His books include Songs of Jamaica and Harlem Shadows. He emigrated from Jamaica to the United States in 1912 and lived in New York City.
LYNNE MCMAHON (1951– ): McMahon has published one collection of poetry, The House of Entertaining Science. She teaches at the University of Missouri.
JOHN MILTON (1608–1674): He was a scholar and theologian. Paradise Lost is considered one of the greatest works in the English language.
PABLO NERUDA (1904–1973): Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet, he received the Lenin Peace Prize in 1953.
JOYCE CAROL OATES (1938– ): Her most recent collection of poems is The Time Traveler. A prolific novelist, she currently teaches in the creative writing program at Princeton University.
FRANK O'HARA (1926–1966): O'Hara worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City for most of his life. He published his first volume of poems, A City in Winter and Other Poems, in 1952, and over the course of his life, he published five more collections.
SHARON OLDS (1942– ): Often described as a confessional poet, Olds won the National Book Critics Circle Award for The Dead and the Living in 1983.
HANS OSTROM (1954– ): Ostrom is the author of A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia. A widely published poet, he teaches at the University of Puget Sound.
GRACE PALEY (1922– ): Paley is best known as a short story writer, particularly for her collection Enormous Changes at the Last Minute. She lives in New York City and Vermont.
DOROTHY PARKER (1893–1967): She was a journalist, humorist, and a founding member of the famous Algonquin Round Table. Her collections of poetry include Enough Rope, Sunset Gun, and Death and Taxes.
LINDA PASTAN (1932– ): Her collection PM/AM: New and Selected Poems was nominated for an American Book Award in 1983. She lives and works in Potomac, Maryland.
MARGE PIERCY (1936– ): Novelist and poet, Piercy has published eleven collections of poetry. She lives on Cape Cod.
MARIEPONSOT (1921– ): Author of several collections of poetry, her recent work includes The Bird Catcher, for which she won the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. Her latest collection of poems is Springing: New and Selected Poems. She teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616): Believed by many to be the greatest writer in the English language, he acted, lived, and wrote in London and Stratford-upon-Avon.
WALLACE Stevens (1879–1955): He was a poet and insurance executive in Hartford, Connecticut. His collections of poetry include Harmonium and Collected Poems.
ANNA SWIRSZCZYNSKA (1909–1984): Swir, as she is known in English publications, was a Polish poet and playwright. She lived in Kraków until her death in 1984.
WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA (1923– ): Nobel prize-winning Polish poet, she lives in Kraków. Her work includes Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts: Seventy Poems.
ELIZABETH ASHVéLEZ (1945– ): Journalist and writer, Vélez teaches at Georgetown University.
LARRY VéLEZ (1945– ): Writer and poet, he currently lives and works in Washington, D.C.
VIRGIL (70 B.C.–19 B.C.): Hailed as the greatest Roman poet, Virgil is best known for his epic The Aeneid.
DEREK WALCOTT (1930– ): He is a Saint Lucian poet and playwright who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992. His collections of poems include Sea Grapes and In a Green Night.
WANG WEI (699–759): Chinese poet, painter, and musician, he was the founder of southern Chinese landscape art. His poems were translated in 1959 by Chang Yin-nan and L. C. Walmsley.
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS (1883–1963): Winner of both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Williams practiced medicine in Rutherford, New Jersey. His collections include Journey to Love and The Broken Span.
JAMES WRIGHT (1927–1980): He was a highly regarded A
merican poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. His work includes To a Blossoming Pear Tree and This Journey.
WILLIAM BUTLER Yeats (1865–1939): Considered the greatest of Irish poets, he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to our amazing agent, Miriam Altshuler, and her assistant, Sara McGhee, our wonderful editor, Molly Chehak, our indefatigable publicist, Tina Andreadis, and our friend Andrew Carroll of the American Poetry and Literacy Project.
We also want to thank our friends at Georgetown University and WETA Public Television and Radio: Leona Fisher, Patricia O'Connor, Norma Tilden, Joe Sitterson, Dennis Williams, and Zoe Kalendek Lukas; and Maura Daly Phinney, Erika Robinson, Kate Hawley, Thanh Bui, Janet Riksen, Fran Planning, DeLinda Mrowka, Suzanne Masri, and Andrea Murray.
Thanks also to Ken and Sandy Roberts and their friends. Special thanks to Jean Ash, Renee Blaloch, Susan Lisk, Barbara Lanphier, Richard Appel, Mary Hutchins, Colleen O'Conner, Linda Kramer, and Ericka Souter, Matt Klam, the Hotel George, all the Cliffords, especially Garry, Pross Gifford and Jennifer Rutland from the Library of Congress, Poets House, the New York Public Library, Politics and Prose bookstore, and Fred Courtwright.
Elizabeth gratefully acknowledges the love, support, and gorgeous, brilliant shite of husband Larry and sons Stephen and Nicholas. And Mary thanks her husband, Greg, for happiness and wedded bliss and everything everything everything.
About the Editors
MARY D. ESSELMAN is a teacher and writer. She lives with her husband in Washington, D.C.
ELIZABETH ASH VéLEZ is director of the Community Scholars Program at Georgetown University, where she also teaches women's studies and nonfiction writing.
Elizabeth Alexander, “Equinox” from Body of Life (Chicago: Tia Chucha Press, 1996). Copyright 1996 by Elizabeth Alexander. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Guillaume Apollinaire, “Hotel,” translated by Anne Hyde Greet, from Alcools. Copyright 1965, the Regents of the University of California and the University of California Press.
Elizabeth Bishop, “Filling Station” from The Complete Poems 1926–1979. Copyright 1965 by Elizabeth Bishop. Copyright 1979, 1983 by Alice Helen Methfessel. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC.
Sterling A. Brown, “Sister Lou” from The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, edited by Michael S. Harper. Copyright 1980 by Sterling Brown. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Lucille Clifton, “why some people be mad at me sometimes” from Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988–2000. Copyright 1988 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.
Johnny Coley, “The Dogs.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Billy Collins, “Embrace” from The Apple That Astonished Paris. Copyright 1988 by Billy Collins. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Arkansas Press.
Carolyn Creedon, “The Nectarine Poem” and “Pub Poem.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Gregory Djanikian, “Immigrant Picnic” from Poetry (July 1999). Copyright 1999 by The Modern Poetry Association. Reprinted with the permission of the author and Poetry.
Mark Doty, “At the Gym” from Source. Copyright 2001 by Mark Doty. Reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Shawn M. Durrett, “Lures.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Richard Eberhart, “In a Hard Intellectual Light” from Collected Poems 1930–1960. Copyright 1960 by Richard Eberhart. Reprinted with the permission of the author and Oxford University Press, Inc.
Gordon Gano, “Kiss Off” published by Gorno Music. Reprinted with the permission of Gorno Music.
Deborah Garrison, “Worked Late on a Tuesday Night” and “Fight Song” from A Working Girl Can't Win and Other Poems. Copyright © 1998 by Deborah Garrison. Reprinted with the permission of Random House, Inc.
David Gewanter, “Chai 1924–2000.” Reprinted with the permission of the author. Copyright 2001, previously Tikkun Magazine.
Louise Glück, “Mutable Earth” from Vita Nova. Copyright 1999 by Louise Gliick. “Purple Bathing Suit” from Meadowlands. Copyright 1996 by Louise Glück. All reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Robert Graves, “Down, Wanton, Down!” from The Collected Poems of Robert Graves. Copyright 1975 by Robert Graves. Reprinted with the permission of Carcanet Press, Ltd.
Lola Haskins, “Love.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” from Angle of Ascent: New and Collected Poems. Copyright 1962 by Robert Hayden. Reprinted with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.
Sadie Lisk Highsmith, “Sadie's Poem.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Jane Hirshfield, “Red Onion, Cherries, Boiling Potatoes, Milk—” and “A Room” from Given Sugar, Given Salt. Copyright 2001 by Jane Hirshfield. “Not-Yet” from The Lives of the Heart. Copyright 1997 by Jane Hirshfield. All reprinted with the permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
Langston Hughes, “Homecoming” from Collected Poems. Copyright 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., and Harold Ober Associates, Inc.
Jane Kenyon, “The Pear, ” “Summer: 6:00 A.M.,” and “The Suitor” from Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Copyright 1996 by the Estate of Jane Kenyon. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Galway Kinnell, “The Correspondence School Instructor Says Goodbye to His Poetry Students” from What a Kingdom It Was. Copyright 1960 and renewed 1988 by Galway Kinnell. Reprinted with the permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Etheridge Knight, “Feeling Fucked Up” from The Essential Etheridge Knight. Copyright 1986 by Etheridge Knight. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
Kim Konopka, “The Layers Between Me.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Philip Larkin, “Wants,” from Collected Poems, edited by Anthony Thwaite. Copyright 1988, 1989 by the Estate of Philip Larkin. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Lyn Lifshin, “Navy Barbie” from Cold Comfort: Selected Poems 1970–1996. Copyright 1993 by Lyn Lifshin. Reprinted with the permission of the author and Black Sparrow Press, Santa Rosa, California.
Lynne McMahon, “We Take Our Children to Ireland” from the Southern Review. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Pablo Neruda, “Night on the Island,” translated by Donald W. Walsh, from The Captains Verses. Copyright 1972 by Pablo Neruda and Donald D. Walsh. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Joyce Carol Oates, “Waiting on Elvis, 1956” from The Time Traveler (New York: Dutton, 1989). Copyright 1989 by the Ontario Review, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Frank O'Hara, “Poem (Lana Turner Has Collapsed!)” from Lunch Poems. Copyright 1964 by Frank O'Hara. Reprinted with the permission of City Lights Books.
Sharon Olds, “The Pope's Penis” from The Gold Cell. Copyright 1987 by Sharon Olds. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Hans Ostrom, “Emily Dickinson and Elvis Presley in Heaven” from Subjects Apprehended (Pudding House Press, 2000). Copyright by Hans Ostrom. Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Grace Paley, “Here” from Being Again: Collected Poems. Copyright 2001 by Grace Paley. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC.
Dorothy Parker, “Fulfillment” from The Portable Dorothy Parker, introduction by Brenden Gill. Copyright 1928 and renewed 1956 by Dorothy Parker. Reprinted with the permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc. and Gerald Duckworth, Ltd.
Linda Pastan, “Petit Dejeuner” from Setting the Table (Washington: Dryad Press, 1980). Copyright 1980 by
Linda Pastan. Reprinted with the permission of the author.”
Marge Piercy, “Barbie Doll” from Circles on the Water. Copyright 1982 by Marge Piercy. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., and the Wallace Literary Agency.
Marie Ponsot, “Better” from The Bird Catcher. Copyright 1998 by Marie Ponsot. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Wallace Stevens, “The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm” from Collected Poems. Copyright 1954 by Wallace Stevens. Reprinted with the permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
Anna Swir, “She Does Not Remember,” translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan, from Talking to My Body. Copyright 1996 by Czeslaw Milosz and Leonard Nathan. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, PO Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368–0271.
Wislawa Szymborska, “The End and the Beginning” from View with a Grain of Sand, translated by Stanislaw Bara$$$czak and Clare Cavanagh. Copyright 1993 by Wislawa Szymborska. Copyright 1995 by Harcourt Brace & Company. Reprinted with the permission of Harcourt Brace & Company.
Elizabeth Ash Velez, “Thursday, 11:00 A.M.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Larry Vélez, “Plainsong.” Reprinted with the permission of the author.
Virgil, “The Wave,” translated by Robert Pinsky from The Threepenny Review (Spring 2001). Copyright 2001 by Robert Pinsky. Reprinted with the permission of the translator.
Derek Walcott, “The Fist” from Collected Poems 1948–1984. Copyright 1986 by Derek Walcott. Reprinted with the permission of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, LLC, and Jonathan Cape/The Random House Group Limited.
Wang Wei, “Returning to My Cottage,” translated by Taylor Stoehr, from AGNI no. 54. Reprinted with the permission of the translator.
William Carlos Williams, “Danse Russe” and “To a Poor Old Woman” from Collected Poems, Volume I 1909–1939. Copyright 1938 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. Excerpt from “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower” from The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams, Volume II 1939–1962, edited by Christopher MacGowan. Copyright 1944, 1953 by New Directions Publishing Corporation. All reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.