As a huge fan of Lorine Niedecker, I’m happy to report that Carlos has posted three of her poems at Halfway down the Danube; here’s one:
Consider at the outset:
to be thin for thought
or thick cream blossomyMany things are better
flavored with baconSweet Life, My love:
didn’t you ever try
this delicacy—the marrow
in the bone?And don’t be afraid
to pour wine over cabbage
Of which Carlos says: “It nicely encapsulates the Wisconsin philosophy of life. (Especially the fourth and fifth lines.)”
That’s the first poem in her 1964 collection Homemade/Handmade Poems (and was the first poem in each of the literally handmade booklets she sent to Cid Corman, Louis Zukofsky, and Jonathan Williams from which the collection was compiled); I can’t resist adding the second one:
Ah your face
but it’s whether
you can keep me warm
Lorine had a unique and unglamorous way of being maudit. I’ve always liked her stuff. It seems that she could have gotten a bit more sort, but that’s true of almost every poet I guess.