Showing posts with label Neruda. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neruda. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Ode to the Maggot,
by Yusef Komunyakaa

This is a good one to go with Pablo Neruda's Dictionary (see below). American poet Yusef Komunyakaa names Neruda as one of his influences. The language is lustrous, just like the creature he describes. Hear him read this.


Ode to the Maggot


Brother of the blowfly
& godhead, you work magic
Over battlefields,
In slabs of bad pork


& flophouses. Yes, you
Go to the root of all things.
You are sound & mathematical.
Jesus Christ, you're merciless


With the truth. Ontological & lustrous,
You cast spells on beggars & kings
Behind the stone door of Caesar's tomb
Or split trench in a field of ragweed.

No decree or creed can outlaw you
As you take every living thing apart. Little
Master of earth, no one gets to heaven
Without going through you first.



From Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021.

Copyright © 2021 by Yusef Komunyakaa.








at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

I like the frivolity of this one. The long blank spaces suggest a youthful, breathless excitement over love. This poem was included in an is...

  • Galileo Galilei by William Jay Smith
    From the 20th c., here's a mysterious thing. What is the writer thinking? Is it just that the name Galileo and his awakening, changing, ...
  • Ode to the Dictionary,
    by Pablo Neruda
    A favorite from what I've read of Pablo Neruda's 225 odes. His best are a little far out, like this one. I like the idea of the dict...
  • Untitled, by Gabe Gudding
    I don't think Gudding is pursuing his poems any more, and that's a shame. This just lobs peace at me.   I consider this a prose poem...