I've been reading the complete works of Anne Sexton for a second time, the first being over 20 years ago. It is every bit as powerful, if not more so, than the last time, but in a different way. I'm not ready to articulate that difference; I haven't put it together yet, so I thought I'd let Peter Gabriel do the talking for me in this 8th segment of Issa's Sunday Service. This week's LitRock song is "Mercy Street" by Peter Gabriel, his paean to Anne Sexton.
While poking around in YouTube I found a video that has Sexton reading the poem "All My Pretty Ones" over the instrumental intro and breaks (and some of the performance near the end) in the Gabriel song. Despite the static "video" presentation, or perhaps because of it, the juxtaposition works and both performances are enhanced.
bird hunter--
even for a fox
no mercyIssa
translated by David Lanoue
best,
Don
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3 comments:
my 'opening' to Anne Sexton
TO
BEDLAM
and Part Way Back
here opening of
What's That
Before it came inside
I had watched it from my kitchen window,
watched it swell like a new balloon,
watched it slump and then divide,
like something I know I know -
a broken pear or two halves of the moon,
[etc]
in the photo I wonder if that is (not) the window? and this table in her kitchen?
ahhh the "stuff" that makes us poets:
black-black cold yesterday's coffee, cigarettes by the carton, and a Royal standard typewriter
add a little music, fear,
and angst and
confess your self away...
she knew her trade...
I get a feeling that Peter Gabriel is a pretty strange fellow.
She knew her trade ... I'm busy reading the complete Sexton (again) for a poetry discussion in the fall ... she is wiping me out ...
Charles, Mr. Gabriel went up in my estimation with that piece ...
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