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| Cat with No Tail |
It’s supremely difficult to raise an anti-war poem above the
level of shouted, trite protest. Vonnegut succeeded in
Slaughterhouse-Five, largely because he was aware that “writing an
anti-war book is like writing an anti-glacier book.” He sees from the get-go that
he must do something new, and he does.
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| Paper Mill |
I’ve started exploring the poetry of Mary Ruefle (ROOF-lee),
and the half-dozen or so poems I've read are brainy, but also emotional and
witty. Her turns are often abrupt or extreme, but they're earned, legitimate, and purposeful, I
think. I'll have to reread to feel more confident about that, but I’m
optimistic.
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| Lovers, Thinkers |
Here’s Mary Ruefle’s poem, “The Letter,” which I
particularly like. It’s a poem about the history of love, tragedy, and human
transience as well as war, and that multidimensional feature is much of what I admire:
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| Grackles, Florida |
The generically evil, invading army in the first five lines felt a bit different, somehow more creative than most writing about evil,
invading armies, but I wasn’t sure Ruefle would bring it off. Then Jocko’s
frozen tear made me pretty sure the poem had me in its grip and would keep me
there—once more, the power of a single detail.
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| Thinkers, Lovers |
By the way, here’s a site that has many videos of poets
reading, including Reufle. It’s a good place for an initial impression of any one of many poets.
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