Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Rachel Wetzsteon (1967-2009)
Rachel Wetzsteon was one of the first contemporary poets I read in college, because she appears in the Rebel Angels anthology, co-edited by my professor and advisor Mark Jarman. Today comes sad news that Rachel Wetzsteon has committed suicide.
This is one of the first poems I read by Rachel Wetzsteon.
from "Three Songs"
III.
How did you feel when you entered the church?
Left in the lurch!
What did they say when you brought back the ring?
Poor jilted thing!
Why did they laugh when they looked up its make?
It was a fake!
How did you spend your time out of town?
Tracking him down.
How did he look when you raided his room?
Pale as a groom.
What were the words the coroner used?
Vilely abused.
How many mourners can fill a hall?
Room for them all.
What are the songs the organist plays?
Dolorous lays.
What do you drop as you head for the bier?
Never a tear.
Have the embalmers earned their pay?
Pink hides the gray.
How does he look who did not survive?
Almost alive.
What does the crowd remark upon?
That he is gone!
How do you feel among these men?
Jilted again.
What do his benefactors sense?
Wasted expense!
Where is the world's most wanted dun?
Still on the run.
This is one of the first poems I read by Rachel Wetzsteon.
from "Three Songs"
III.
How did you feel when you entered the church?
Left in the lurch!
What did they say when you brought back the ring?
Poor jilted thing!
Why did they laugh when they looked up its make?
It was a fake!
How did you spend your time out of town?
Tracking him down.
How did he look when you raided his room?
Pale as a groom.
What were the words the coroner used?
Vilely abused.
How many mourners can fill a hall?
Room for them all.
What are the songs the organist plays?
Dolorous lays.
What do you drop as you head for the bier?
Never a tear.
Have the embalmers earned their pay?
Pink hides the gray.
How does he look who did not survive?
Almost alive.
What does the crowd remark upon?
That he is gone!
How do you feel among these men?
Jilted again.
What do his benefactors sense?
Wasted expense!
Where is the world's most wanted dun?
Still on the run.
Comments:
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Such a tragedy. Thanks for posting that poem. I can almost smile thinking of her, reading that poem.
Her Gold Leaves
For Rachel Wetzsteon
She wrote a poem about alchemy
(like Wordsworth with his daffodils had found),
“the gilded page” transformed: base stuff to leaf
of gold and then returning to the ground
“a radiance that was not there the day
before.” The power of poetry to save,
to make us see the gold inside the gray,
still somehow couldn’t keep her from her grave.
Though Larkin and Auden were "influential ghosts,"
her inspiration came from “well-worn streets”
that are mine too, this neighborhood that hosts
us for a time and, if we leave, repeats
our names till we return. But she is gone,
and we who are left here try to carry on.
Liza McAlister Williams
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For Rachel Wetzsteon
She wrote a poem about alchemy
(like Wordsworth with his daffodils had found),
“the gilded page” transformed: base stuff to leaf
of gold and then returning to the ground
“a radiance that was not there the day
before.” The power of poetry to save,
to make us see the gold inside the gray,
still somehow couldn’t keep her from her grave.
Though Larkin and Auden were "influential ghosts,"
her inspiration came from “well-worn streets”
that are mine too, this neighborhood that hosts
us for a time and, if we leave, repeats
our names till we return. But she is gone,
and we who are left here try to carry on.
Liza McAlister Williams
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