I think that this is my favorite poem by Jane Cooper. I wrote about it in an essay here.
The Recorder of Suicides
With a pocketful of stones
one walked toward the water,
propped her head in the oven,
broke his body on the beach.
And did they discern
something important
before the soft impact of
nothing at all?
Your words, Shirley,
who just as succinctly
left us in September
for a reserve unsought,
Left me here doodling
on a secondhand typewriter.
Composure wears the heart out. Child—
where he stopped the car, the stones.
Jane Cooper
Cooper’s book, The Flashboat, is how I first encountered her work and where I cherish it most.
The Recorder of Suicides
With a pocketful of stones
one walked toward the water,
propped her head in the oven,
broke his body on the beach.
And did they discern
something important
before the soft impact of
nothing at all?
Your words, Shirley,
who just as succinctly
left us in September
for a reserve unsought,
Left me here doodling
on a secondhand typewriter.
Composure wears the heart out. Child—
where he stopped the car, the stones.
Jane Cooper
Cooper’s book, The Flashboat, is how I first encountered her work and where I cherish it most.
2 comments:
dear julie,
thanks for posting these wonderful poems. let's keep jane cooper's poetry alive! we need it!
i would never try to name a 'favorite' poem of jane's but i suppose 'the weather of six mornings' is one of the most important poems i've ever read for my own life.
yours,
kazim ali
Dear Kazim,
That is a good one! Thanks for your comment - and for your wonderful poems.
Julie
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