The 2008 National Book Award for Poetry went to Mark Doty for Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems [811.54 DOT]. (Listen to his acceptance speech here.) Fire to Fire contains new poems, and ones culled from his previous books of poetry (seven of them!).
His poem, "The House of Beauty," is included in this latest volume--an appropriate choice since "The House of Beauty" deals with a fire in a beauty salon. You can watch Doty reading "The House of Beauty" below:
I think this stanza is particularly fine:
In the dark recess beside the sink
--where heads lay back to be laved
under the perfected heads rowed along the walls--
the hopeful photographs of possibility darken,
now that the House of Beauty is burning.
The poetry of Mark Doty is new to me, but not for long!
No comments:
Post a Comment