Gerald Stern, “Stepping Out of Poetry”

What would you give for one of the old yellow streetcars
rocking toward you again through the thick snow?

What would you give for the feeling of joy as you climbed
up the three iron steps and took your place by the cold window?

Oh, what would you give to pick up your stack of books
and walk down the icy path in front of the library?

What would you give for your dream
to be as clear and simple as it was then
in the dark afternoons, at the old scarred tables?

Gerald Stern’s Early Collected Poems gathers together much of the verse from six books first published between 1965 and 1992. In an essay published last month at Norton’s Poets Out Loud website, Stern looks back at his early efforts: “I was interested in that which was overlooked, neglected, and unseen, from a political, religious, and personal point of view and a voice that bespoke this in the simplest, most honest manner,” he writes. “I found myself returning to early—to fundamental—experiences, as I found myself discovering a new language. This constituted a celebration as well as a kind of mourning or elegy… [It] was a difficult road to hoe, for it expressed neither formal, academic niceness nor bohemian madness.”

Other poems in this collection include “Kissing Stieglitz Goodbye” (at the Academy of American Poets website, which has an audio recording of “Sylvia” as well), “Waving Good-by” (the Poetry Out Loud website), and “Another Insane Devotion” (Poetry). Earlier this year, The New Yorker published a new Stern poem, “Dream IV.”

27 July 2010 | poetry |