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The Hurt "...the following-up of a wounded tiger on footIt's in here, blent in tangled dense terrain— More dangerous for the wound's gut-sullen pain— Unseen while I stand in this open space Numb for the stark encounter, face to face, With what I neither see nor can avert. No help. Go in alone, track down the hurt. *The author gratefully acknowledges Oxford University Press India, for permission to reprint for the passage from The Temple Tiger by Jim Corbett. Two Rejoinders "Soft found a way to damn me undefended:One Time Such mild reproof: I stand forever riven: I did offend, and now go unforgiven. Another Time To bear a pardon, innocent, is hard; But worse: to be reviled for bald canard. *The author gratefully acknowledges Ohio University Press/Swallow Press, for permission to quote the epigram by J.V. Cunningham, from The Poems of J.V. Cunningham (Athens, OH: Swallow Press, 1997). On Nixon’s Funeral The baby boomer reflectsOutrage; the shrill, self-righteous—thus the theme That seized our time, driving us to the streets Of dissidence, to heckle rude blasphemes Against your dirty tricks, wars, and deceits. Our long contention rests with you in state, An enmity complete. So lie in grace; Elect or not, now you are with that great Silent majority we’ll all embrace. The Fault a brain-tumor patientThe organ of his thought Enfolds the end of will Proving an inmost fault— Intrinsic in warmth, chill. Explanation in Three Parts I. Unfazed by utter disregard, A sideshow plies a busy street. And moi? Ignored by the ignored, Vaguely I apprehend defeat. II. Let’s introduce the gagman here: Poet who rates most poems bull; Weirdo calling the weirdoes weird; The margin of the marginal. III. A double whammy; but I’m here, Dead serious, irked, unresigned. I seem so solemn? So austere? I choose the presence of the mind.
Leightty, David. "Poems." The New Compass: A Critical Review 4 (December 2004) [http://www.thenewcompass.ca/dec2004/leightty.html]
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