The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Mon 3/6/06)

[RetroLounge]

Lady Lazarus

I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it----

A sort of walking miracle, my skin
Bright as a Nazi lampshade,
My right foot

A paperweight,
My face a featureless, fine
Jew linen.

Peel off the napkin
0 my enemy.
Do I terrify?----

The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?
The sour breath
Will vanish in a day.

Soon, soon the flesh
The grave cave ate will be
At home on me

And I a smiling woman.
I am only thirty.
And like the cat I have nine times to die.

This is Number Three.
What a trash
To annihilate each decade.

What a million filaments.
The peanut-crunching crowd
Shoves in to see

Them unwrap me hand and foot
The big strip tease.
Gentlemen, ladies

These are my hands
My knees.
I may be skin and bone,

Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.
The first time it happened I was ten.
It was an accident.

The second time I meant
To last it out and not come back at all.
I rocked shut

As a seashell.
They had to call and call
And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls.

Dying
Is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.

It's easy enough to do it in a cell.
It's easy enough to do it and stay put.
It's the theatrical

Comeback in broad day
To the same place, the same face, the same brute
Amused shout:

'A miracle!'
That knocks me out.
There is a charge

For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge
For the hearing of my heart----
It really goes.

And there is a charge, a very large charge
For a word or a touch
Or a bit of blood

Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.
So, so, Herr Doktor.
So, Herr Enemy.

I am your opus,
I am your valuable,
The pure gold baby

That melts to a shriek.
I turn and burn.
Do not think I underestimate your great concern.

Ash, ash ---
You poke and stir.
Flesh, bone, there is nothing there----

A cake of soap,
A wedding ring,
A gold filling.

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.

Sylvia Plath

********************

RL

Checkout the Daily Poem Archive at:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph ...

and if you want to see some of my poetry, see the blog at:
http://www.myspace.com/retropaul

[miss_american_pie]

1. Sylvia was made for Mondays, I think

At least this one. :hi:

[RetroLounge]

3. yes, she is...

Dying
Is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell.
I do it so it feels real.
I guess you could say I've a call.

RL

[miss_american_pie]

8. Oh yes

That's the part that got me, too. :hug:

[In_The_Wind]

2. sigh

[RetroLounge]

4. yes.

Sigh.

:hug:

RL

[In_The_Wind]

6. thank you

[LaraMN]

5. Largely irrelevant, but I swear Trent Reznor is the male reincarnation

of Sylvia Plath.

[RetroLounge]

11. Hmmm

That makes sense to me too...

RL

[djeseru]

7. I had this one rattling around my head...

...most of the day yesterday.

I've been there: "Dying
Is an art, like everything else,
I do it exceptionally well.

I do it so it feels like hell."

Thank you RL. Hope your day goes well. :)

[RetroLounge]

12. Thanks

:hi:

RL

[RevCheesehead]

9. These are my favorite lines:

Herr God, Herr Lucifer
Beware
Beware.

Out of the ash
I rise with my red hair
And I eat men like air.


Just call me another redhead. :)

:hug:

[RetroLounge]

10. Hey you!

I thought of you when I saw that line!

:hi:

RL

[RevCheesehead]

13. Which ones?

About God and Lucifer?
Or about eating men?

:rofl:

[RetroLounge]

15. eating men

of course...

:rofl:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

14. Ah, my dear RetroLounge.....

Somehow I knew this was Sylvia Plath before I got to her name.....

Just the way the words go together, and these sentiments! Whoa.....

We didn't have her long, but she did work wonders while she was amongst us.....

Thank you

:loveya: :hug:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

16. SYL-VI-A! SYL-VI-A!

:woohoo:

Great poem, RL!

[RetroLounge]

17. W-I-M-R! W-I-M-R! W-I-M-R!

How are you?

:hi:

RL