William Haskins
08-04-2007, 07:50 PM
CONCORD, N.H. — Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic, who learned English as a teenage immigrant from Yugoslavia, will be the new U.S. poet laureate, the Library of Congress announced Thursday.
Simic, who lives in Strafford, will succeed another New Hampshire resident, Donald Hall of Wilmot. The poet laureate program promotes poetry across the nation.http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-poet3aug03,1,2374575.story?coll=la-news-a_section
More on Simic: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate_current.html
Interview: http://www.theparisreview.com/viewinterview.php/prmMID/5507
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/images/charles_simic.jpg
Against Winter
The truth is dark under your eyelids.
What are you going to do about it?
The birds are silent; there's no one to ask.
All day long you'll squint at the gray sky.
When the wind blows you'll shiver like straw.
A meek little lamb you grew your wool
Till they came after you with huge shears.
Flies hovered over open mouth,
Then they, too, flew off like the leaves,
The bare branches reached after them in vain.
Winter coming. Like the last heroic soldier
Of a defeated army, you'll stay at your post,
Head bared to the first snow flake.
Till a neighbor comes to yell at you,
You're crazier than the weather, Charlie.
Charles Simic
Simic, who lives in Strafford, will succeed another New Hampshire resident, Donald Hall of Wilmot. The poet laureate program promotes poetry across the nation.http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-poet3aug03,1,2374575.story?coll=la-news-a_section
More on Simic: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate_current.html
Interview: http://www.theparisreview.com/viewinterview.php/prmMID/5507
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/images/charles_simic.jpg
Against Winter
The truth is dark under your eyelids.
What are you going to do about it?
The birds are silent; there's no one to ask.
All day long you'll squint at the gray sky.
When the wind blows you'll shiver like straw.
A meek little lamb you grew your wool
Till they came after you with huge shears.
Flies hovered over open mouth,
Then they, too, flew off like the leaves,
The bare branches reached after them in vain.
Winter coming. Like the last heroic soldier
Of a defeated army, you'll stay at your post,
Head bared to the first snow flake.
Till a neighbor comes to yell at you,
You're crazier than the weather, Charlie.
Charles Simic