Today, we celebrate the life of Mark Strand (April 11, 1934 – November 29, 2014), a Canadian-born American poet, essayist and translator. Strand was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. Many of his poems are nostalgic in tone, evoking the bays, fields, boats, and pines of his Prince Edward Island childhood. Strand's poems use plain and concrete language, usually without rhyme or meter. He also received the Wallace Stevens Award in 2004.
In celebration of his birthday and National Poetry Month, we are featuring his poem, Eating Poetry. Enjoy!
Eating Poetry
By Mark Strand
Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.
The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.
Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.
She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.
I am a new man,
I snarl at her and bark,
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.
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