Autobiography In Italian
A 19 anni, ero seduto nei Giardini Boboli leggendo Mickey Spillane.
(At 19, I was sitting in the Boboli Gardens reading Mickey Spillane.)
Al 29, mi hanno mandato al Festival di poesia a Genova.
(At 29, they sent me to the Poetry Festival in Genoa.)
A 39 anni, frequentavo la padrona di Leopardi, travestita dalla saggezza.
(At 39, I was attending to Leopardi’s mistress, ill-dressed in wistfulness.)
A 49 anni, il mio unico compagno era Ingrid Bergman nelle sue vesti Rossellini.
(At 49, my only companion was Ingrid Bergman in her Rossellini robes.)
A 59 anni, sotto i cieli di Dante, sopporto placida inferno del decadimento del corpo.
(At 59, under Dantean skies, I endure the placid Hell of the body’s decay.)
The Protoplasm! The Protoplasm!
I should know Propertius! Edward thought
and commenced a study of the poems
in which he saw his second love
as clear as first firmament in the mind.
I must petition the blood! Edward mused
and commenced a scourging of his flesh
through which he remembered
the darkness following dirty Judas.
The heart of archness is betrayed!
Edward felt and commenced a counting
of the times proud Faust slowed
down and took his raging pulse.
Propertius is too obscure, scourging
hurts, archness has no heart; let me instead
forbear and descend into the blistered quiet
and the intoxicated calm, Edward decided.
How Poets Die
Mark Strand
over decades
a steady diet of diction
enlarged his heart
one day it just burst
Robert Frost
a crazy idea
that he could
build a wall
without mortar took
possession of his mind
he piled stone
on stone higher
and higher until
they toppled over
crushing him beneath
Wilfred Owen
a bullet (not his own)
to the brain
Dylan Thomas
many believe he died
from alcohol poisoning
that’s not so
early on his brain caught fire
and it took twenty-two years
to burn itself out
T.S. Eliot
hardening of the
sensibility
Allen Ginsberg
run over
by New Jersey
Wallace Stevens
overdose
of indemnity
William Carlos Williams
He (an obste
trician) died
when
he dis
covered
he could
no
l o n g e r
de live r
John Berryman
jumped off
Hart Crane’s
bridge
Hart Crane
born
without ears
it was only a matter of time
Bill Yarrow, Professor of English at Joliet Junior College and an editor at the online journal Blue Fifth Review, is the author of The Vig of Love, Blasphemer, Pointed Sentences, and five chapbooks. His work also appears in the anthologies Aeolian Harp, Volume One; This is Poetry: Volume Two: The Midwest Poets; and Beginnings: How 14 Poets Got Their Start. He has been nominated eight times for a Pushcart Prize. More information about Bill can be found on his website: https://billyarrow.wordpress.com/
