eugene richie
for Mindy and Don
The clouds open, the sun shines
for a moment on top of those tall buildings
on the Chelsea skyline, and then it’s gone.
There is no one to tell about that moment,
no one to retell the story to again and again,
to remember it. The light’s out and then back
on again only a brief time before
you descend into that dark tunnel alone—I mean
with everyone else, because that’s
the only way to go, and everyone
wants to go there, but really all alone,
the way we enter and leave
a place, hoping for a friendly smile
somewhere along the way, a grin
even to help us put up with the clueless
do-gooders, and dismissers who never
got what you told them, but then there are
those wonderful ones who did, who do.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
eugene richie - from coast to coast
eugene richie
has published seven collections of poems and translations, including Psyche and Amor (Factory Hollow Press 2009), with Rosanne Wasserman. He has edited John Ashbery’s Selected Prose (2004) and Pierre Martory’s The Landscapist, a poetry finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is currently editing Ashbery’s selected translations from the French and is the Director of Writing in the Pace University English Department in New York City.
