Douglas Barbour writes:
<<I may not think this was a great poem, but I did laugh, & ruefully
at times. Yes, it is on some level both of the above, but on another
level it's sort of a verse version of the kind of thing Christine
Lavin does so well. My wife & her best friend will laugh with
recognition & then even more wittily puncture my & my friend's more
than occasional failures in precisely the manner indicated...>>
I, too, know that rueful laugh. I even value it. I asked my
wife--not usually a reader of poetry--to look at the Cope poem &
after commenting on its sing-song meter she said, "It's just
bitching about men around the water cooler."
===
In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that I have only
read half a dozen Cope poems. I have been responding to this
particular text, which has been advertised as a "provocation," which
I take to mean that it has serious intent. I have, by the way, read
all of Dorothy Parker's poems, many times--she was my mother's
favorite poet. Cope is not in Parker's league.
======================
Joseph Duemer
School of Liberal Arts, box 5750
Clarkson University
Potsdam NY 13699
315.268.3967
[log in to unmask]
http://web.northnet.org/duemer
http://www.grammarbitch.com/ppp/index.html
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Through the loop
of the rusted padlock
a blade of green
. . .
In the bed
of a rusted war truck
the farmer begins his rice
[John Brandi, from Stone Garland, 1999]
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