Poet Laureate at Ninety Five

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged , , , , / / by
The new poet laureate is ninety five he’s been working on his demons for a long long time Six weeks before the poet was born his father burns his demons out by drinking carbolic acid in the park Mother burns father’s pictures forbids mention of his name Young Stanley finds one in the attic and asks about the man She tears the picture to shreds without a word, and slaps him hard six decades later he still felt the sting Bright boy gets scholarship to Harvard Okay but forget about teaching classes these were not the days when a Jewish boy could teach their ivy league asses Marries a poet, moves to honeymoon farm she disappears, never to be heard from again The new poet laureate has had plenty of pain each day he wakes as a poet, not a man of ninety five still seeing everything new – still glad to be alive

Stanley Kunitz, Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Teacher and Gardener (July 1905 – May 2006)

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