I found the poem that moved me this week while catching up with a stack of New Yorkers. This brief poem by Michael Longley made me cry and gave me goosebumps. I find it beautiful and heartbreaking. I think Longley is a magician who works with words. I keep rereading his poem to see how he conjured in me such deep yearning and sadness. The image is courtesy of Deviant Art.
THE SNOWDROPS
Inauspicious between headstones
On Angel Hill, wintry love
Tokens for Murdo, Alistair,
Duncan, home from the trenches,
Back in Balmacara and Kyle,
Cameronians, Gordon Highlanders
Clambering on hands and knees
Up the steep path to this graveyard
The snowdrops whiten, green-
Hemmed frost-piercers, buttonhole
Or posy, Candlemas bells
For soldiers who come here on leave
And rest against rusty railings
Like out-of-breath pallbearers.
Michael Longley
THE NEW YORKER, AUGUST 31, 2015
GILLY GILLY OSSENFEFFER KATZENELLENBOGEN BY THE SEA
Where is Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen she said as we motored down the Long Island Expressway and I said
where is it written that I have to answer your crazy questions and she said
where did I put my makeup purse and black mascara and I said
where did I go wrong in life that I have to continually listen to a woman talking to herself and she said
where is the pretzel stick that I gave you to save for me this morning and I said
where is the nearest insane asylum I can drive you to, to get you treated and she said
where do you get off talking to me like that and I said
where do you think you are, in a chauffeured limo with a driver who will cater to your every whim and she said
where can I hit you that will leave no marks and not cause us to crash and I said
where are the quarters that I left in the glove compartment to pay the tolls and she said
where oh where have his little coins gone oh where oh where can they be and I said
where they are is where I put them unless someone placed them somewhere else and she said
where do you think that would be Sherlock and I said
where do you think a person who doesn’t care about taking things and not replacing them would put the money and she said
where the hell are we and I said
where we have always been and she said
where is that and I said
where that is, is for me to know and you to find out and she said
where is the next rest stop I need to get out of the car and I said
where can a guy go to get some peace around here and she said
where there’s no human beings around like Mars and I said
where did we go off the rails on this trip and she said
where we went off was when we met ten years ago and I said
where do you think you’ll be ten years from now and she said
where I can wake up happy and not be hassled by you and I said
where exactly do you think that would be and she said
Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Katzenellenbogen by the sea.
Martin H. Levinson
—from Rattle #48, Summer 2015
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