NIEDECKER ON THE DANUBE.

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 blossomy

Many things are better
flavored with bacon

Sweet 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

Comments

  1. 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.

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