November 2015
Ed Werstein
wersted@gmail.com
wersted@gmail.com
Despite being a life-long consumer of poetry, I spent 22 years in manufacturing before my muse awoke and dragged herself out of bed. I sympathize with poor and working people and I advocate for peace and against corporate power. My poetry has appeared in Verse Wisconsin, Blue Collar Review, Stoneboat and a few other publications. My first chapbook, Who Are We Then?, was published in 2013 by Partisan Press. You can find more of my poetry and other great poetry here: http://littleeaglereverse.blogspot.com/
You Could Google It
According to a book I’m reading
(The KGB Bar Book of Poems)
in 1997 Boston poet, Ed Barrett
“became the second poet ever
to use the word haruspicate
successfully in a poem.”
I assume that James McAuley
was the first, since his poem,
Blue Horses, was published in 1946,
contains the word haruspicate,
and seems to be a rather
successful poem if one can judge
by the internet searches I’ve done
in which I’ve come across
this poem often.
What I don’t know is whether any poems
since Barrett’s have contained the word
haruspicate, but none show up
on a Google search. Which makes this
if successful, a candidate
for third poem in the line.
(who knows how many
unsuccessful ones
have been tried?)
And this poem
(successful or not)
is almost certainly the first
to use the word haruspicate
four times.
Soap
Soap is the thing which lathers
and lurches round the shower
cannot be found
as it dwindles down
the drain, you play the bower.
According to a book I’m reading
(The KGB Bar Book of Poems)
in 1997 Boston poet, Ed Barrett
“became the second poet ever
to use the word haruspicate
successfully in a poem.”
I assume that James McAuley
was the first, since his poem,
Blue Horses, was published in 1946,
contains the word haruspicate,
and seems to be a rather
successful poem if one can judge
by the internet searches I’ve done
in which I’ve come across
this poem often.
What I don’t know is whether any poems
since Barrett’s have contained the word
haruspicate, but none show up
on a Google search. Which makes this
if successful, a candidate
for third poem in the line.
(who knows how many
unsuccessful ones
have been tried?)
And this poem
(successful or not)
is almost certainly the first
to use the word haruspicate
four times.
Soap
Soap is the thing which lathers
and lurches round the shower
cannot be found
as it dwindles down
the drain, you play the bower.
©2015 Ed Werstein