"I have been eating poetry" - Mark Strand

                                                                                                          Rene Magritte

In honor of Mark Strand  1934-2014

Canadian-born American poet, essayist, and translator, Strand was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990.  He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1999 for his collection, Blizzard of One.  

He wrote several epitaph poems. The Remains, comes from his 1970 collection Darker.

I empty myself of the names of others. I empty my pockets.
I empty my shoes and leave them beside the road.
At night I turn back the clocks;
I open the family album and look at myself as a boy.
What good does it do? The hours have done their job.
I say my own name. I say goodbye.
The words follow each other downwind.
I love my wife but send her away.
My parents rise out of their thrones
into the milky rooms of clouds.
How can I sing? Time tells me what I am.
I change and I am the same.
I empty myself of my life and my life remains.

Humor flowed through his poems also.

Eating Poetry

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.

There is no happiness like mine.

I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.

Her eyes are sad

and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.

The light is dim.

The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,

their blond legs burn like brush.

The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.

When I get on my knees and lick her hand,

she screams.

I am a new man.

I snarl at her and bark.

I romp with joy in the bookish dark.