Vox Populi
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Lorine Niedecker: When Ecstasy is Inconvenient
Feign a great calm;
all gay transport soon ends.
Chant: who knows—
flight’s end or flight’s beginning
for the resting gull?
Heart, be still.
Say there is money but it rusted;
say the time of moon is not right for escape.
It’s the color in the lower sky
too broadly suffused,
or the wind in my tie.
Know amazedly how
often one takes his madness
into his own hands
and keeps it.
Lorine Niedecker (1903 – 1970) was an American poet known for her spare style, her focus on the natural landscapes of the Upper Midwest, and her philosophical topics.
Copyright 1933 Lorine Niedecker. First published in Poetry (Chicago).
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An objectivist school (?) poem about excuses for showing exuberance. Clever weaving of straightforward images to make the poem’s points.
Niedecker was long relegated to the back bench of poets. For those who care about who knew who back then, she was a buddy of better known Louis Zukofsky. She in rural Wisconsin, he in Jewish NYC, they made an odd poetry couple.
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Actually a poem about excuses for not showing exuberance. Sorry for forgetting the Not.
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What a poem.
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Superb. Haven’t read her in a long time. That last stanza!
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Yes, the last stanza makes the poem.
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