Sometimes you stumble upon a book and the discovery is delight.
Rotten Perfect Mouth is a wonderful surprise.
I was watching I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix) — a fantastic mindbender of a movie, based on a book, that deserves more attention — that includes a stellar performance of the poem, Bonedog.
When I googled the poem, everyone says Bonedog appears in the book Rotten Perfect Mouth. It doesn’t. But that’s okay because I now have a new-to-me book of poems by a poet I’m digging, and I’ll continue my search for the elusive poem that kicked off a hunt that led to the discovery.
(In the meantime, Eva, are you out there? Send me a note, will you?).
Almost everything about this book appeals: the title, cover photo, poems, the indie edge, the mystery of the author’s name — H.D.? What’s she hiding or knowing or keeping close? Is this challenge or game, rubik or ruse? Oh poets, how we love the artful dodge.
Every page bursts with rough beauty:
Nothing is as long or as hard as one hopes.
— from One Night On The River
All winter I
have been barrelling along
the highway, slim with
mediocrity. Winter changes
its name and nothing else
— from Modern Science
I am thinking one thing and saying another.
I am spinning a prayer out of manic luck.
— from The Minotaur
And then this:
Racing It
The sky never touches the ground but races it, forever and ever.
Amen.
I am driving us home from the church,
away from the last of summer, through the
funeral dusk. There is no bend in the road.
She is riding shotgun, exhausted, curling away
from awful truths. Blowing smoke from a crack
in the window, eyes closed.
We are surrounded by wheat and corn,
just like people always say.
I can feel the farness in my muscles.
I can feel the love in my teeth, humming.
When we get home, we can have a drink,
uncoil, not talk about it. This is what we
do best.
I want to stop the car, walk out into the fields,
and lie down on the ground, flat on my back.
I want to lie flat out, not feeling it,
until forever lets me on for the ride.
— Eva H.D.
Your Turn: What’s your latest great find?