Okay – so I’m a LITTLE late for Poetry month’s 30 poems in 30 days celebration. I’m going to make up for it by posting TWO poems for the next 4 days. 🙂
Today I pay homage to my mentor and friend Anne Waldman. I was a student of hers at Naropa University in the MFA program, but that was over 15 years ago (egad!). If you know Anne, this poem will mean more to you.
If you don’t know Anne – I have posted a link below to a recording of a well-known Anne poem, Peon, May I Speak Thus. I used to perform this poem during readings because I was fond of it (and because it’s so Anne).
I took Anne Waldman to the Movies
years ago she was visiting in Seattle and asked me
if I wanted to go to the movies and I was
aghast intrigued to think Anne Waldman could go
to the movies and not be propped up in a display case
a dream a metaphor after poet duties were done
not dragging her scarves through the buttered
popcorn stepping over jujube boxes on sticky floors
it was Italian the movie she had wanted to see I
don’t recall the name only that it was not as good
as we’d wanted as it had sounded as it had
promised and so we went for a drink and discussed
the men in our lives the ones we had left or had left
us in poems in ports-of-call in dim kitchens
what did it matter the facts of it the truth
was ours the wine was red
I don’t recall the label but I remember it was
good the night slurred back to us a toast to
our bad men our bad movies our cracked opened lives
April 7, 2010
~Â ~Â ~
Anne Waldman’s Peon, May I Speak Thus (a litany against AIDS)
