Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

Surprisingly, I couldn’t find books by Simic that I reviewed on Goodreads, so I must have read them before 2009, probably some of his selected poetry volumes. I was publishing poems by then and attending, sometimes hosting, a poetry reading group. I was also delighted to hear him read live. I preferred his earlier books to this one, since I especially enjoyed his surrealism and his vivid, though frightening stories of childhood in Serbia/Yugoslavia. However, he was still Charles Simic. No way was I going to knock him down to four stars. These poems seemed shorter, cleaner, more to the point than his early work. He kept up with the times. And I still enjoyed this collection. His title, Come Closer and Listen, fit these quieter poems and his older age.

The title poem begins with a whallop, no pun intended:

“I was born–don’t know the hour–
Slapped on the ass
And handed over crying
To someone many years dead
In a country no longer on a map,…”

The poem before it, “Blind Fate,” ended with

“Blind fate here runs the show.”

Even shorter and more to the point is “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” in just two lines.

“Time–that murderer
No one has caught yet.”

My favorite poem of the collection is “Meditation in the Gutter,” which ends with a wonderful cat metaphor that I’ll leave you to discover on your own.

Thanks for this, Alarie. I love Charles Simic, too. He was one of the poets I was reading when I began writing poetry and I am sure some of my efforts were poor imitations. He made it look easy.
I love that first excerpt about the birth.
I googled "Meditation" and found it! Thank you. For others interested, here it is:
https://www.vqronline.org/meditation-...

Glad you shared, Sarah.