Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Poetry Tag: Matthea Harvey is IT

Poetry tag continues with Aimee Nezhukumatathil tagging her friend, poet Matthea Harvey who shares this connection, “I am being a very literal tagger--from Aimee's parrot to mine. Here the human and the parrot are feeling a little less hopeful, but they are certainly the best of friends!” Here is Matthea's "parrot" poem:




Our Square of Lawn
by Matthea Harvey



From the parrot's perch
the view is always Hello.

We try not to greet one
another. When the boys come

after school I shout
you are not cameras

at them & they run away.
Fact will muzzle anything.

I look at myself in
a spoon & I am just

a head. Never learned
how to make ringlets.

The trees are covered
with tiny dead bouquets.

The ducks have been eating
grass with chemicals on it,

ignoring the signs. At night
from our glass-fronted box

we watch them glow.
It is the closest we come

to dreaming.

Copyright Matthea Harvey 2010

Five fun facts about Matthea Harvey
*her book Modern Life was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book
*her first children’s book is The Little General and the Giant Snowflake, illustrated by Elizabeth Zechel
*she is a contributing editor to jubilat, Meatpaper and BOMB.
*she teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence College
*she lives in Brooklyn, New York

Look for these selected poetry books by Harvey:
*Sad Little Breathing Machine (Graywolf, 2004)
*Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form (Alice James Books, 2000).
*Modern Life (Graywolf, 2007)
*The Little General and the Giant Snowflake (Tin House Books, forthcoming)



Next up: Helen Frost



Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2010. All rights reserved.

Image credits: tagyoureitonline.com;captainstlucifer.wordpress.com/2007/08; blog.syracuse.com;nytimes.com;sfgate.com

1 comment:

  1. The people connections are almost as fun as the poem connections!

    ReplyDelete