Time to hit you with a book review. Sorry Tree is a recent book of poetry by Eilleen Myles. By way of description of Myles, for the uninitiated, I don’t know whether to say, ‘Still hot at almost 60,’ ‘In the genre of Ginsberg and Patti Smith,’ ‘Lesbian for president, Poet for all,’ or just, ‘someone who owes me a coffee/chat.’ I will content myself with saying instead, a voice that will influence you, Myles has mastered her craft.
Now on to the book. This is a poem from one of my favorite series of poems in Sorry Tree, “Dear Andrea”
Myles writes:
“Dear Andrea
You are the candy melting
in my mouth.
Is that a euphemism
For what? Witnessing your love.
That’s pretty good.
Oh I thought you said
Hear the candy
melting in my mouth.
All the people like me
are thanking all the people
like you. Can we call
it bird house?
I wouldn’t take that
away from you. You’re
like an orangutan.
You’re like a little brother
I just allowed in the bed.
Did you have coffee with
your dinner. No
I’m excited. We
bought a bird house
today. We didn’t
get it yet. No
but we should
call it that. I.M.
sweet”
I missed my stop on the subway, while reading this, I was transported and, perhaps fortunately, not to my intended destination. Instead I visited the spaces that the poet inhabits, which her voice so viscerally describes. I was on a ferry and in a bedroom, within a warm house deep in thought, capturing each minuscule feeling that visited me. For the other “Dear Andrea’s” buy the book
See you at Angela Davis’s talk tonight!
Stumble It!
