Thomas Lux

Posted on November 22, 2021November 22, 2021 by Meryl in Poetry

Here is a poem from a little-known poet whose work I like:

A Little Tooth

Your baby grows a tooth, then two,
and four, and five, then she wants some meat
directly from the bone. It’s all

over: she’ll learn some words, she’ll fall
in love with cretins, dolts, a sweet
talker on his way to jail. And you,

your wife, get old, flyblown, and rue
nothing. You did, you loved, your feet
are sore. It’s dusk. Your daughter’s tall.

Thomas Lux – 1946-2017

From New and Selected Poems, 1975-1995, published by Houghton Mifflin, 1997.

Monday again

Posted on August 17, 2015August 17, 2015 by Meryl in Poetry

An industrious week–pear jam, gazpacho, chicken stock, yard cleanup… the delicious tasks of summer. Though it doesn’t say so, this seems like a summer poem to me.

A Boat In the Forest

Sixty miles from a lake,
no river or pond within forty-eight,
no ocean near,
and this rowboat, crisply painted, oarlocks
oiled, oars set and cocked,
in a small—mossy, pine needles—clearing
of sparse gray and yellow forest grass.
The light here: like joy, pain, like glass.
On its bow, in red paint, beside the anchor rope,
its name: A Joy To Be Hidden
But a Disaster Not To Be Found.
An odd place, a long name, for a boat

Thomas Lux Continue reading “Monday again” →