Poetry Pairs, 7

"What Men Die for Lack Of" & the Malotte

Hello, Poetry Friend

It’s time to conclude our Poetry Pairs series. One thing I hope for you is that through reading the poems I’ve shared, some of their lines have become sticky. Maybe you don’t remember exactly …

the secret,

the line, the name of 
the poem. 

Maybe it’s just a vague recollection. But when you see it again, your heart will say Yes.

To end us off right, let’s read “What Men Die for Lack Of” by Abigail Carroll, a poem made up of lines and phrases from other poems. (You may even recognize a few from our Hero’s Poetry Journey.) Carroll shows us how even a fragment of a poem can conjure up whole worlds.

What Men Die For Lack Of

It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there. – William Carlos Williams

Daffodils—ten thousand at a glance.
A globed fruit, palpable and mute.
Pockets full of lichens and seeds.
Apple-bent mossed cottage trees.
Lamb-white days, a lilting house.
Winnings risked on pitch and toss.
Boatmens’ songs, mechanics’ songs.
Rose moles on the skin of trout.
A cherry hung with bloom, a cherry hung with snow.
The flow of Julia’s silks, the liquefaction of her clothes.
An angel robed in real linen, spun on a definite loom.
Bald and wild, the O-gape of the moon.
Telephone poles holding out their arms to birds.
A hammock, a field of sunlight between two pines.
Nine bean rows and nine and fifty swans.
A leaping tongue of bloom spared by a scythe.
Magenta pokeweed sprung in a vacant lot.
The oily, rainbowed deck of a rented boat.
White chickens, a red wheelbarrow glazed with rain.
Marbles and puddles and whistling far and wee.
Truth told slant, truth that dazzles gradually.

– Abigail Carroll

This poem comes from Carroll’s collection Habitation of Wonder, which I received as a gift from a friend. She knew I was having a hard time and sent me poetry (always a good move!). Because this is a poem made up lines from other poems, it pairs me with poems I’ve memorized before and introduced me to new ones.

One she references is Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish,” which didn’t do it for me the first few times I read it. But after I participated in an online discussion about it, I got excited. I’d been trying to learn to sing “The Lord’s Prayer” (the Malotte, the high version), and I just wasn’t bringing it. In the copy of my music I wrote the words “rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!” over the word “forever.”

Yep. That did the trick.

Don’t be afraid to let poetry pair you up in unexpected ways.

Poetry Journal

• Read Abigail Carroll’s poem. Do you recognize any of the lines from our Hero’s Poetry Journey or some other poetic moment?

• What line feels most necessary for your journey? Learn that line by heart.

• Read the poem aloud every day for a week. Is a pairing arising?

• Write your own poem about “What Men Die For Lack Of” and the new association is has for you. (Mine is at meganwillome.com.) If you like, email me what you write.

Happy poeming!

Megan