Poem: Doing Poetry by Jack Gilbert
Poem, you sonofabitch, it’s bad enough
that I embarrass myself working so hard
to get it right even a little,
and that little grudging and awkward.
But it’s afterwards I resent, when
the sweet sure should hold me like
a trout in the bright summer stream.
There should be at least briefly
access to your glamour and tenderness.
But there’s always this same old
dissatisfaction instead.
Let’s warm up today with some bad jokes provided to us by my friend Sean Singer:
How does a poet sneeze? Haiku.
What’s a Grecian Urn? About 20,000 drachmas a year after taxes.
How can you make a million dollars in poetry? Start with 3 million.
Prompt: Humor implies perspective. We need that to keep going here on Day 345,428,999. Let’s try and write a funny poem today. Have you ever done it? It’s hard. You suspect it might be pointless. It’s not en vogue. No one will want to publish it. But it might get you some place new. If you can’t get to funny, aim for witty. That’s easier and still in the spirit of this prompt. Quippy, epigrammatic. Classical. A short assignment because you might still be writing your series of poems.
Speaking of perspective, I’m researching a book about the man who wrote the lyrics to Jingle Bell Rock, a cousin of my grandfather’s. He was also a poet who published work in Poetry, the first issue of the Beloit Poetry Journal, etc. A lot of poetry journals are digitizing and publishing their entire run now. It’s such fun to look through old issues of Poetry. Or, take this New Orleans Review from 1976 with its Everette Maddox, Billy Collins, and Miller Williams poems. Perspective, it gives you the thick skin you need to keep going as a writer.
Cocktail: I’m going to try this one tonight because I have some dry vermouth and demerara sugar for the syrup.
The Blackthorn
2.5 oz Irish Whiskey
.5 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
.25 oz. Demerara Syrup
3 dashes Angostura Bitters
Stir and strain into rocks glass with ice, add a lemon.
That’s all for today! See you tomorrow.