The following is dedicated to the Oregon poet Raymond Carver (1938-1988) whose volume of Collected Poems All of Us I am reading at the moment.
Breakfast with a poet
Use what's around, says Ray,
Lighting a fresh cigarette.
I'm standing in Ray's kitchen
This the first sunny day in three days.
My poached egg is cooling
On its slice of toast.
In the corner the small radio
Is playing its prelude to the ether.
Upstairs a crazy woman is yelling
Into her telephone. I reach
For the coffee jar and softly
Spin the lid. Faintly heard
The two-tones of a fire engine.
Another sonnet day, says Ray.
-
gw-2010
Good to be reading you and other poets here again, Gwilym :)
ReplyDeletewas away on vacation...hoping to read more :)
wishes,
devika
Thank you Devika. I hope you enjoyed the vacation.
ReplyDeleteHave not heard of him Gwilym, so shall now look for stuff about him. You see your function in blogland is to spark off my imagination and get me interested in new (to me) poets - thus (hopefully) improving my poetry.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pat. Yes, it seems PiR is serving some kind of useful purpose from what Devika and you are both saying and from the latest stats. Last time I looked at the stats PiR was receiving up to 120 visits a day, that's a 50% increase on this time last year.
ReplyDelete'Breakfast with Ray' is my poetic reply to his poem 'Sunday Night' which is in the book 'All of Us'.
If you click on the icon you can listen to Raymond Carver reading 7 poems in 10 minutes. There's a lot of background noise, bells, cars, coughs and the like. But it's interesting to do it - feels a bit like you're eavesdropping on a private party. It's a little bit of insight. It's worth the visit.