eight great american poets
I’ve been reading
eight great American
poets of the past
half century.
Theodore Roethke
an alcoholic
a schizophrenic
was found drowned
in a swimming pool
face down
at age fifty five.
Elizabeth Bishop
whose mother spent
most of her life
in a lunatic asylum,
hid her alcoholism,
bouts of depression
and her lesbianism
all her life.
Robert Lowell,
a manic depressive
took electric shock
treatments to his
head all life.
in delusions of grandeur
he thought he was
the greatest villain
and attacked others
with physical violence.
He was married 3 times.
John Berryman’s
father killed himself
putting gun to his head
when John was very young.
he heard his father’s shot
and never forgave him.
a believer in monogamy,
was married 3 times and
lived an adulterous life.
a chronic alcoholic.
on a wintry day
when fifty-six
he killed himself jumping
from a bridge on the Mississippi river
onto frozen boulders below.
Anne Sexton, a walking
encyclopedia of mental disorders
was addicted to alcohol,
tobacco, barbiturates
and tranquilizers.
she called herself a witch
and abused her children.
when hardly forty six,
she put on her mother’s fur
coat and died in her car
in the garage, the car idling.
Sylvia Plath’s husband,
Ted Hughes started fucking
his friend’s wife and she
committed suicide gassing
herself from her kitchen stove
when hardly thirty one
Allen Ginsberg was profane
in his use of tongue.
he celebrated homosexuality
and used psychedelic drugs.
James Merrill avoided
women being a homosexual.
and celebrated homosexuality
like Allen Ginsberg.
these great American
poets for the past half century,
so full of insights of life -
their verses so admired –
were what a great
bunch of people in real life!
perhaps those who can
see order in disorder,
can’t see disorder
in their own lives.
eight great American
poets of the past
half century.
Theodore Roethke
an alcoholic
a schizophrenic
was found drowned
in a swimming pool
face down
at age fifty five.
Elizabeth Bishop
whose mother spent
most of her life
in a lunatic asylum,
hid her alcoholism,
bouts of depression
and her lesbianism
all her life.
Robert Lowell,
a manic depressive
took electric shock
treatments to his
head all life.
in delusions of grandeur
he thought he was
the greatest villain
and attacked others
with physical violence.
He was married 3 times.
John Berryman’s
father killed himself
putting gun to his head
when John was very young.
he heard his father’s shot
and never forgave him.
a believer in monogamy,
was married 3 times and
lived an adulterous life.
a chronic alcoholic.
on a wintry day
when fifty-six
he killed himself jumping
from a bridge on the Mississippi river
onto frozen boulders below.
Anne Sexton, a walking
encyclopedia of mental disorders
was addicted to alcohol,
tobacco, barbiturates
and tranquilizers.
she called herself a witch
and abused her children.
when hardly forty six,
she put on her mother’s fur
coat and died in her car
in the garage, the car idling.
Sylvia Plath’s husband,
Ted Hughes started fucking
his friend’s wife and she
committed suicide gassing
herself from her kitchen stove
when hardly thirty one
Allen Ginsberg was profane
in his use of tongue.
he celebrated homosexuality
and used psychedelic drugs.
James Merrill avoided
women being a homosexual.
and celebrated homosexuality
like Allen Ginsberg.
these great American
poets for the past half century,
so full of insights of life -
their verses so admired –
were what a great
bunch of people in real life!
perhaps those who can
see order in disorder,
can’t see disorder
in their own lives.
posted by Ravi Kopra at 8:19 PM
6 comments
