The Murder of John S. Van Winkle and his Wife by a Robber in the Winter of 1850
He stole through the snow,he stole in the night,
noiseless wheels crunching.
Walking wheels--walking, so
circular, a sine wave rolling
endlessly step after step--noiselessly
wheeling footsteps
toward an old housewife,
her husband, his house. There
to rob, with a chop, to end
Van Winkle's sleep with
a hatchet--a hatchet!--in a
sternum sounding
--curiously--
like a hatchet in a tree.
The Van Winkles awake, spill
and he steals back home
considering his wares as fallen
leaves.
gbs 10-16-06
6 comments:
Wow! This is amazing. It reminds me of the opera Lizzie Borden and the little ditty, but more the opera.
I have been trying to up my consciousness of the work of WCW. I got a video out of the library with info about him and commentary by Alan Ginsberg. (Oh and nice pix of the falls.) And the poetry.
Thanks, brd--this one came slowly and through many really, really bad drafts...I appreciate your compliments and interest--what video is it? There are a few sordid details about him that are no fun at all...which reminds of our conversation on Eliot last time we were in TN...
No sordid details in this one. It was part of a really old Annenberg-Corp. for Public Broadcasting project called Voices and Visions. It might be online somewhere. I got it at the library. About Eliot, I recently listened to tapes about him too. I had never read about his "late in life" love affair. That was interesting. Still he was a jerk to his first wife.
No kidding--WCW was, apparently, occassionally a jerk too. We have a professor here that is constantly apologizing for Williams's inability to keep out of other women's beds--it's frustrating. That's why I steer clear of biography...this prof refuses to, though...
poor conversely...always sticking to idealized versions of the poets he loves...
...i cite: apparently, occasionally a jerk...
c, you should be glad i work so hard to get to the bottom of poets' biographies - as you might have noticed, we have become friends, and now that i live around the block, i am now in prime position to write a tell-all biography later in life.
NOOOOOO!!!!!!! Don't tell about the Elmo!!!! I'll regret it, my ancestors will regret it!!! I'll make you regret it!!!
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