by Michael Blumenthal
American Poets Continuum
Series
The winner of the 1999 Isabella Gardner
Award for Poetry, Dusty Angel is the work of a poet who has
been called one of the most talented of his generation. Blumenthal's
themes of love, lust, longing and loss resonate throughout this
collection in poems that are as remarkable for their keen social
and personal observations as for their beautifully crafted language.
His subject matter ranges from the fanrly sensual "Having
My Way With You" to the somber, heartfelt "The Real,"
written for a friend mourning the loss of his wife. With perfect
pitch, Blumenthal can sing in any key.
The
Mouth
What
can the mouth do that nothing else can do?
Birds
frolic and sing in the trees.
Snakes
hiss in the grass.
If
a man's mouth is not blessed,
he
will never learn to sing, he will never
chant
in a perfect breeze, in summer,
with
someone with whom love is impossible
and,
therefore, beautiful and tender.
What
can the mouth do? What can it say?
Acrobatic
in the afternoons, it grows speechless
and
terrible, and doesn't know its own home:
What
shall we say of the mouth?
It
travels brightly over the parks,
it
dances and frets, it covers
the
faces of those we might have loved
on
wet, lustful afternoons, it sings
the
happy-sad song of the tongue
and
why shouldn't it? Kisses, too,
fly
from the mouth. Mine
have
flown, eagerly, to you.
What
can the mouth do? you ask
Let
me tell you: the mouth
can
deliver a kiss, the mouth
can
learn to say good-bye.
Copyright © 1999 by BOA Editions
Available editions:
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Cloth
ISBN: 1-880238-80-2
Price: $20.00
Publishing Date: October 1999
Paperback
ISBN: 1-880238-81-0
Price: $12.50
Publishing Date: October 1999
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