Raymond Carver is a loser

Drinking While Driving by Raymond Carver

It's August and I have not
Read a book in six months
except something called The Retreat from Moscow
by Caulaincourt
Nevertheless, I am happy
Riding in a car with my brother
and drinking from a pint of Old Crow.
We do not have any place in mind to go,
we are just driving.
If I closed my eyes for a minute
I would be lost, yet
I could gladly lie down and sleep forever
beside this road
My brother nudges me.
Any minute now, something will happen.

sorry if I've already said this 10,000,00x but I saw him give a reading at Reed in either '85 or '86 - dude had it working

Thanks, everyone!

I like that poem, but it's in the exact same meter and format as a lot of great James Wright poems.

I wrote my undergrad thesis on Carver (as well as David Mamet and Susan Rothenberg, two other late-70s/early-80s who made a similar major shift in their work from fragmented essentialism to a fuller, connection-based style), and I treated him with reverence in high school and college, but I've become much more conflict about his work in the years since. I'd love to be blown away again by a poem or story of his.

late 70s/early 80s artists
...much more conflicted

wait Eazy what meter is that poem in

Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly
Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.

*

OK, OK, not meter.

I wrote my undergrad thesis on Carver (as well as David Mamet and Susan Rothenberg, two other late-70s/early-80s who made a similar major shift in their work from fragmented essentialism to a fuller, connection-based style),

It's interesting how James Wright's development was in the other direction, no?

His line breaks are so perfect, he just holds ideas an arms length away from each other, like here:

I could gladly lie down and sleep forever
beside this road

I admire Carver but he's too depressing to compel me to spend a lot of time with him.

READ IT ALL!

― I know, right?, Sunday, 21 September 2008 10:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

OTM