Todd Boss, “Worst Work”

God wrote a poem about me,
which should have been flattering,
but He let me read it,
and it was awful.

And what was I going to say?
Far be it from me to hurt God’s feelings.
“Hey,” I said, “that’s pretty good.”
Well, it wasn’t completely untrue.

What a bad word, good,
where creation is concerned.

I guess I might have given
the great provocateur a fight,
but I know too much
about the art of making art,
I owe it to my faith the give the old fart
the benefit of doubt.
It’s hard to write a poem
about someone you love,
for one thing. And for another,
it’s hard to take a lesson from
your own worst work.

Yellowjacket is the debut collection from Todd Boss, and you should definitely check out his website for more poems, as well as information on how filmmakers, composers, and other artists can collaborate with him on creative projects, like this animated adaptation of “Constellations” by Angella Kassube.

Hear Boss read “Don’t Come Home” at Norton’s Poets Out Loud, or “To Wind a Mechanical Toy” at the Missouri Review podcast. (The latter site also features his reading of “Yellowjacket.”). You can also read four poems from Virginia Quarterly Review or “To Be Alone Again in the Thick Skin” (at Poetry Daily), or “The Day Is Gray and the Lake” (Carol Peters’ poetry blog).

10 April 2009 | poetry |