Three readings in one week. Don't recommend it. I didn't really enjoy these readings -- don't know why, except I feel I didn't read well.
Anyway, new poem inspired by... well, you'll get it.
Anne Sexton Nuzzles the Breasts of My Assistant
(after a photo by Arthur Furst)
You in your white dress, ankles crossed above the grass, beside the pool
your arm around my assistant, who holds my extra camera and squints
at the dark-headed creature
pressing her nose into the soft part of my assistant’s stomach
in the next shot things have gone a little further
my assistant pushes at your shoulder
your eyes tilt up and search her face
your eyes, blank as a made bed in an empty room
this photo is not for the book
later I will tell people about it and my assistant will sigh,
smooth her shirt and laugh
as if we were discussing something else
______________________
theres a rough part in the middle, can't seem to get it under control.
3 comments:
The Arthur Furst photos in the book of Anne's last summer are awesome. I got the book A year ago at some rediculious low price at a discount book store. Love it.
I like this idea... there is something, some little tweek I feel it needs, but I;m not sure what. Don't give up on it.!
Best~
Michael
Thanks for commenting. I'm sending you something, in a few minutes.
I might suggest paying attention to repetition of the word assistant, except for the initial reference and in the title.
I would not use it again at all in the body as it is not a particularly tender word and does not slip from the mouth without conferring a severe and sterile image.
She wants to be much more robust than that, dangerous beneath the trappings. Perhaps naming her might help towards unniggling the middle.
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