3.12.2007
Last minute poetry notice
[Posted 10:33 AM by Emily Ghods]
Tomorrow night–March 13th–at 7:30 p.m., The Poetry Society of America will be celebrating the 30th birthday of Carcanet Press, an independent publisher of poetry in England. As part of the festivities, poetry readings will be given by Paul Muldoon, John Ashbery, and The New Criterion’s David Yezzi. As The New Criterion has pointed out here in a previous post, David’s readings are always a smash, so be sure to make it to The National Arts Club tomorrow night to hear him recite his poetry, and the poetry of selected Carcanet authors! For more information, click here and scroll down.
To whet your appetites, I cannot resist giving you a preview of tomorrow night–a preview that David was kind enough to give me in the office earlier today. Tomorrow night, David plans to read this chilling poem by the Carcanet poet Sophie Hannah–the poem turns on the fact that early in the poem, an “E” refers to one letter grade below a “D,” and later in the poem, a word is mispelled missing the same letter “E.”
Your Dad Did What?
Where they have been, if they have been away,
or what they’ve done at home, if they have not –
you make them write about the holiday.
One writes My Dad did. What? Your Dad did what?
That’s not a sentence. Never mind the bell.
We stay behind until the work is done.
You count their words (you who can count and spell);
all the assignments are complete bar one
and though this boy seems bright, that one is his.
He says he’s finished, doesn’t want to add
anything, hands it in just as it is.
No change. My Dad did. What? What did his Dad?
You find the ’E’ you gave him as you sort
through reams of what this girl did, what that lad did,
and read the line again, just one ’e’ short:
This holiday was horrible. My Dad did.