In ten minutes, the destruction is total. No, we are here, eating the pig together. Old men and women, children, deserters, young wives. Listening for Stukas or elephants, carrying Maybe, south of the valley, refugees pull their carts That crosses a pass in the hills and discoversīins of potatoes in root cellars under white farmhouses.īarrels of cider, onions, hens squawking over eggs-Īnd the people nowhere, with bread still warm in the oven. We forage like an army starving in winter
Moist, tender, falling apart, fat, sweet.
Then we cut open his belly and pull the skin back.įor myself, I scoop a portion of left thigh,
We wrench his trotters off, we twist themĪt shoulder and hip, and they come off so easily. With sudden enthusiasm we dismantle the pig, It comes off so easily, like a detachable part. Now we examine him, exclaiming, and we marvel at him. Then they gutted the pig and stuffed him,Īnd roasted him five hours, basting the long body. "I never fainted before, in my whole life." In a comic strip, when the character gets knocked out.įrom a book: The eyeballs must be removed His eyes cramped shut, his no-eyes, his eyes like X’s With his tight snout, with his small ferocious teethīy an apple. That ran in front of the car, in the desert outside Tucson,Īnd I am drawn to him, my brother the pig, His wide pig’s head and he looks like the javelina Now I see his head, as he takes his place Striped, like a tiger cat’s, from the basting, In Ann Arbor, drinking Cribari from jars. Twelve people, most of us strangers, stand in a room Here's a meaty example of Hall's hallmark style: Some of us are lucky, some of us unlucky, and some both. Granted, this is an unwanted Muse, but life deals randomly, and the God who giveth happiness takes it away just as quickly. Many of them are inspired by the death of his wife, poet Jane Kenyon. This book is a small selection of Hall's best according to Hall. There's a nice mix of styles, too, unlike some poets who write like one-trick ponies. Some of us are lucky, s I am simpatico with most of Hall's interests: nature, New England, farms, cows, horses, food, history, gardens, marriage, and death.
I am simpatico with most of Hall's interests: nature, New England, farms, cows, horses, food, history, gardens, marriage, and death. “However wrenching may be from line to line, they tell a story that is essentially reassuring: art and love are compatible, genius is companionable, and people stand by one another in the end” ( New York Times Book Review).more The Selected Poems of Donald Hall reflects the poet’s handpicked, concise selection, showcasing work rich with humor and eros and “a kind of simplicity that succeeds in engaging the reader in the first few lines” (Billy Collins).įrom the enduring “My Son My Executioner” to “Names of Horses” to “Without,” Donald Hall’s best poems deliver “a banquet in the mouth” (Charles Simic) and an “aching elegance” ( Baltimore Sun). For the first-time reader or an old friend, these are, above all others, the poems to read, reread, and remember. Here, in his eighties, having taken stock of the body of his work-rigorous, gorgeous verse that is the result of seventy years of “ambition and pleasure”-he strips it down. Long-Listed for the 2016 National Book Awardĭonald Hall was an American master, one of the nation’s most beloved and accomplished poets. Here, in his eighties, having taken stock of the body of his work-rigorous, gorgeous verse that is the result of seventy years of “amb Former poet laureate Donald Hall selects the essential work from a moving and brilliant life in poetry. Long-Listed for the 2016 National Book Award Donald Hall was an American master, one of the nation’s most beloved and accomplished poets. Former poet laureate Donald Hall selects the essential work from a moving and brilliant life in poetry.