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Consolations

Vandal Poem of the Day: February 1, 2017

by Louis Simpson

Dickinson had a cockatoo

she called Semiramis

and loved dearly.

Whitman was a trencherman,

his favorite dish

a mulligan stew.

Frost went for long walks.

Eliot played croquet.

Pound took fencing lessons.

There is a snapshot of Yeats

with a woman in a garden,

naked to the waist and smiling.

Auden, when he was old,

counted the sheets of toilet paper

that a visitor used.

from Struggling TimesFind it in the library

Copyright © BOA Editions, Ltd 2009
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of BOA Editions LTD.

Published in Louis Simpson Poems

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.