by Thomas Whitbread
New Poets of America
Series
"The
prevalence of a loose 'naturalness' in contemporary poetry has
made the ordinary reader a poor critic when he encounters meter,
rhyme, and the like; he can't well distinguish the honest, functional
use of such a means from a frilly and obtrusive formalism, and
that's too bad. Still, it would take a very ordinary reader
to find a culpable artificiality in Thomas Whitbred's poems.
Their language has a supple openness, as of an amiable and intelligent
man talking; both in its playfulness and in its gravity, it
avoids the stagey; and it easily enlists any suitable form in
the pursuit and sharpening of its point."
- Richard Wilbur
Whomp
and Moonshiver
Whomp
and moonshiver of salt surf on sand,
Beer
cans, rocks, seawall: Galveston night vision
Anyseawhere
hear-- and seeable, incision
Cut
into land, incessant dentist's hand
At
drill, letless force, without countermand
Order
thump order order thump intermission
Thump
order thump thump thump torder No Permission
For
surfers Danger Deep Holes yet all how grand.
Palls
the heart, yet how go on without? Within
Gyrates
the heart, at such terrific. If
Heart
is the essence of a humane being
And
life love, let heart leap to share its thin
Pump
with the din about against the stiff
Photograph
that succeeds the act of seeing.
Available editions:
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Paperback
ISBN: 0-918526-31-0
Price: $7.00
Publishing Date: January 1982
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