Maureen N. McLane's New Poem, "Huh"
In past years Maureen N. McLane has recommended recent discoveries, stopped by the recording booth, and written extensively on the work of August Kleinzahler.
This year she outdid herself. McLane's generously allowed us to debut "Huh." And so we kick off National Poetry Month in the best way we know how:
Huh
What’s a month
in the world
of a wish?
Poetry is dead?
You will eat hot lead?
Western culture’s outbled?
Whan that Aprille
with his shoures soote
the droghte of March
hath perced to the roote
then do marauding hordes
Google poetry.
What’s a pilgrim to do
without a set shrine,
belief shred?
Thirty days
hath September,
April, June, and November—
the zodiac’s realigning
itself along new lines
that will outlast
these and all lines.
No one man
should have all that power.
The clock’s ticking
I just count the hours
till the dictators
all morph into jello.
How strange
to be invited
to pay attention.
And now
you want to
make it worth it
whatever happens.
Our time’s short and dark
but for weird light
Maureen N. McLane’s essays have appeared in numerous publications. She is the author of World Enough (FSG, 2010) and Same Life (FSG, 2008). She received the 2003 National Book Critics Circle Nona Balakian Award for Excellence in Book Reviewing. She teaches at New York University.
Comments