May 27, 2009
Why we can’t all be poets
The reason my father did not wax lyrical about warm spring nights…was that he wasn’t a poet, he was a topic.
-Kincaid Chance in Duncan’s The Brothers K, 125
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Related:
• I want to read your favorite poems
• 22 contemporary poets worth reading
• The thanklessness of being inaugural poet
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Are you sure it wasn’t because he had allergies?
One of my favorite books of all time… I especially love the 7 yr old Kincaid, after praying that the beer he father was drinking would disappear, thought he should have been more specific after watching it disappear down his father’s throat, when he says, “Prayer is mysterious, and God is even worse.”
My husband LOVES this book. I could never get passed all the baseball references to get into it.
I think we can be–though some will always be better than others at it.
Thanks for reminding me of this book. I think I’ll take it down and read it this summer. It’s been a long time.
We may not all be poets, but if we are Christians, we are indeed all ‘poiema’ (topics, if you choose the more prosaic Duncan’s word).
Loved this book. Three cheers for Northwestern writers!
Read his other stuff, too, everyone!
Oh man! Thanks for mentioning that book! Its the great American novel and nobody knows about it.