Sunday, October 6, 2019

"I Say the Thing for the First Time"

6 October 2019: Adrian Matejka is just so darn good. Really feeling this one. Got this (again) from the Poem-a-Day email, and it included this bit from the poet: “The most challenging kind of poem for me to write is a love poem, so I’m trying to write a whole book of them. This poem is about the instant when you tell someone you love them for the first time. They either say yes and everyone is happy or they respond in a non sequitur—they start dusting the shelves, tying their shoes or, as was the case in the moment that inspired this poem, they leave to go get more ice.”

It's a kind of 2019 Prufrock moment/aka my worst nightmare: “That is not what I meant at all; / That is not it, at all.” But for me right now, this version is maybe more alive, real, and poignant. 

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