The title poem:
AFTER I HAVE VOTED
I move the curtain back,
and something has gone wrong.
I am in a smoky place,
an Algerian café.
They turn the spotlight toward me;
the band begins to play.
The audience stares back at me.
They polish off their glasses.
They ask the waiter, “Who is she?”
He holds his pen
against his heart.
He speaks behind his hand.
There are tea bags swinging
from their mouths.
Their teeth are made of brass.
The jello sighs into the candlelight.
My eyes turn into stars.
Ah—the colored spangles on my clothes,
the violet flashlights and guitars!
Also, check out this link to a piece on Laura that appeared on the Poetry Foundation’s site. And one last word—if you happen to come across this thin little gem (24 pp, 18 poems) forgotten on a shelf in some dusty corner of a used bookstore and the price is right, buy it.
BTW, here’s AbeBooks’ listing for the book--roughly $14 a poem; given the current economic crunch in Hellas, it's too bad I have only one copy left!
some terrific rhythms she's got !
ReplyDelete1972 was an huge year
actually say 1969 - 1975
a plethora of AUTHENTIC voices
sorely missed by the "pups" of
these days.
was just the other day reading my/that Madrona CORMAN issue
with the insert
1972 ? ! JEEZE... like it was a right-now spangles attached and swinging.
neat will look for more Laura Jensen. she yet writing ?
I hadn't heard of Jensen before. I like this poem very much.
ReplyDeleteEd and Wooden Boy—
ReplyDeleteThanks for the feedback on this fine poet; as the Poetry Foundation article states, Laura isreally low-profile but she’s still writing and the link should be a good starting place to search for her poems, or you can do what the rest of the world does—Google!
if I "do what the rest of the world does"
ReplyDeleteI'd loose my way ....
and THEN
without a map
and an instant knowing via
what EVERYBODY else knows and does
where wood I be ?
Just another hollo bump-on-a-log ?