A Rose for Emily: Issa's Sunday Service, #55

Tomorrow is the birthday of the keyboard impresario of The Zombies, Rod Argent. Known for their hit singles "Tell Her No," "She's Not There," and the classic "Time of the Season," The Zombies song "A Rose for Emily" comes from their master song cycle, Odyssey and Oracle. A classic case of borrowing a title and then making it all their own, "A Rose for Emily" has nothing to do with William Faulkner's Gothic short story masterpiece of the same title. Still the allusion is there and the song is here. The song, something like "Eleanor Rigby" as seen through the eyes of Syd Barrett, is a classic you may have never heard. As for Faulkner, he wrote many a chilling line and this one is right up there:

"Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head."

Oh, yeah.


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This week's poem from the archive comes from Lilliput Review #81, August 1996. It is by the late Joseph Semenovich and, oh, how it sings:

poet's lament

there's hardly a piece of silence
i can listen to
without myself
trying to accompany it

Joseph Semenovich

quite a feat--
in utter silence
the plum tree blooms

Issa
translated by David G. Lanoue

best,
Don