Andrushka

I loved the book, especially the first half. You can read three of the poems, including my favorite, "Writing in Water," elsewhere online. If you're curious about Rad, you can read a very short biography of him and praise for his book, but I suggest you read the poetry first because biographies and praise are sometimes unnecessary baggage to bring to a poem. Also from the poetry department of Scott's brain comes a somewhat L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E-y poem: Red Barons Ant plants peonies, four to one odds on red. Sticky wet red and black war nectar, four reds on black, blacks on red flakes, petal falls to Sisyphus volcano. Sticky wet war dances. Black, red, Pebble volcanoes, heroin pollen. Snipped and encircled, snippet lovelies filling veins, opalescent blue vase second place to battlefields. Petals unraveled. Table cloth tapestry, table topped red, black. Chess swans float, drawn, drown, no longer holding blooms ruffled in ant dog fights, casualties in the glass distortion. Green scales pulled back; Trojan unfolded. Snoopy dances in the rain singing. Apple red from pulpy apple green, plain broad edges, chiffon war's all the rage. I stole the phrases "ant plants" and "snoopy dances" from somewhere and I can't remember whence. Fortunately, in poetry it's homage whereas in fiction writing it's plagiarism. The exceptional thing about this poem is that it's the only one I can remember ever getting back from Hilda without any significant recommendations and the highest attainable grade. This time I'm all out tooting my own horn. The thing is, I can never predict the grade's I'll get. Sometimes I'll do something I think is just wonderful and it fails to impress; other times it's like this, I write something out of deadline desperation, have little confidence in it and little time for revision and people love it. It's the same thing in my 19th century class. I write reaction papers that I think are excellent and they get a C; I dash something off at the last minute with little preparation, confidence, or inspiration and I get a perfect score. Perhaps procrastination really is an academic survival skill.

Posted by Scott on 17 November 2005 at 11/17/2005 07:49:00 PM | Permalink