I skimmed your novel
To see if I might be in it
Which I was not
It’s fine
After all
You’re not reading this poem
Greg Pak: Poetry
I’m best known for comics and films, but here I am writing poems again. You can read about the importance of poetry in my life in my 2018 “Thanks, Poetry” essay for the Poetry Foundation. Other recent publications include I BELONG TO YOU / MOTHERLAND and “Book Club.”
No hawk, no squirrel
Lord help me, I’m writing poetry again. It’s a terrible year, and somehow verse feels like a proper response, a way to grapple with emotional turmoil with the most efficiency and directness. Today I’m thinking about haiku and giving myself the challenge to focus on the classical elements by including a reference to the natural world, an exploration of a specific, tactile moment, and a instant of quiet revelation. Here’s today’s result, inspired by what I saw on my morning walk.
No hawk no, squirrel–
Just a bushy, severed tail
Curled in fresh cut grass.
How to remember what you already know about the things that matter
How to remember what you already know about the things that matter
This poem
is a quiet room
and a mirror
and a simple word like “grief”
limned with gold thread, tied to a brick,
and thrown down a fairy tale well
you have to listen so hard
just to hear the echo
after all this drama
it must come back transformed
infused with new meaning
the poet only used a hundred words
he must have chosen them so carefully
but it’s just “grief”
only softer
and clearer
“Thanks, Poetry” essay by Greg Pak in this month’s Poetry Magazine — featuring his high school poetry (oh no!)
Just a little stunned to have an essay in Poetry Magazine this month — which includes excerpts of my high school poetry!
The magazine has a feature called “The View from Here” in which it gets folks who aren’t generally known for their poetry to talk about the meaning of poetry in their lives. So I dug into my old high school notebooks and read through dozens of my old poems. Hoo boy! It was harrowing and fun and ultimately opened my eyes to how important poetry really has been in my development as a writer and a human being.