I don't think I've ever read a Stephen Dunn poem before that I really, truly liked (and many of them I really, truly dislike)—but I like this one, from the August 24, 2009, issue of The New Yorker: "If a Clown."
Ordinarily, I don't like poems that overflow with questions like this, but here, the shift to the kid at the end gives the poem the extra propulsion it needs to lift off.
Ordinarily, I don't like poems that overflow with questions like this, but here, the shift to the kid at the end gives the poem the extra propulsion it needs to lift off.
Well I'm glad you liked it.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, Don, but when I finished the poem, I actually thought, "I like that one, but Don Brown would not like it!" :-)
ReplyDeletewell, there you have it; I've become predictable. Or...I guess I always was.
ReplyDelete