Mercy

Good god I have so much to do today and all I WANT to do is finish Mercy by Lucille Clifton. I love her. I grew up with a poet grandfather who had me reading Emily and Longfellow while other girls where learning how to put on make up. I will never forget in high school reading Clifton for the first time and realizing there was a whole other world of poetry.

And by the way I have never been forgiven for leaving form behind, my grandfather is 87 years old and tells me every time I see him that I am not really a poet because I can’t write a sonnet worth a damn. It goes something like you people think this crap you write is poetry….

Anyway a lot of money has gone into therapy because of this man and I am not even diving into my knee jerk reaction about rhyme. The thing is I could win a Pulitzer and he would still be saying this stuff.

Oh well my plea for today is for everyone to go read the next issue of Pleiades, especially page 32 and drink a glass of wine with me. I love the journal, I like my poem…those two things don’t always happen.