poetry

Music: Harold Budd: The White Arcades (1988) I was chatting with a friend today, and she mentioned in confidence that she was trying her hand at poetry. I shared with her that I have a number of friends who write poetry, including my chair Barry Brummett, and a co-author, Dale Smith. I told her that one of the reasons I do not write poetry is because when I hear my friends read their poetry I am in awe. I shared with her a favorite poem of mine by Farid Matuk, whose first book reading was also my first in Austin (I blogged about it here). Farid's reading stands out as one of my best experiences of 2006. After hearing that reading I came home and tried to answer him. I failed.

Today I asked Farid if I could share a poem on my blog, and he agreed on the condition I mention his publisher, which is Effing Press. This press is effin' awesome, and a link to the editor in chief can be found in my blogroll (that would be snapper's effing junk(boat)heap). Farid's book is titled Is It the King? and is stirringly moving. I guess part of the reason Farid's poetry is so powerful for me is that I know a lot of the people that he mentions and because I know he is a lover. Regardless, I hope you find his poetry as wonderful as I do. I regret my HTML knowledge stops at HTML 2, so the spacing is all wrong; please get the chapbook so you can see it properly. Anyhoo, here goes:

"But Richard, Will You Show Me an Ethic of Freedom?"

by Farid Matuk

[By request of the author, I have deleted this poem.  Buy the chapbook!  --Josh]