July 1, 2002
Telling the Bees
For my father—1910 to 2001 It fell to me to tell the bees, though I had wanted another duty—to be the scribbler at his death, there chart the third day's […]
July 1, 2002
Fast-Food America
When writers claim to avoid interstates and fast-food restaurants in order to find the real America, get set for foolishness about old-time dialects, country crafts, and characters of the sort […]
July 1, 2002
Now That I’m Back
Mama’s always telling people what I can and cannot do. “He can get that for himself, Esme! Leave him be!” she hisses. Me, reaching up for Whirlies on a supermarket […]
July 1, 2002
Public Dreaming: An Interview with David Malouf
David Malouf was born in Brisbane, Australia, in 1934, the descendant of Lebanese and English grandparents. In 1970, he established himself as a poet with Bicycle and Other Poems (published […]
July 1, 2002
Unfinished Symphony
We were a bad orchestra. Even our repertoire spoke of diminished expectations: Beethoven’s First, Excerpts from Bizet’s Carmen, Schubert’s Unfinished. In the hands of a good orchestra I knew these […]
July 1, 2002
Editor’s Notes
Tom Bigelow, managing editor of The Kenyon Review since 1998, died on June 9. He was 47 years old. I sit here using the occasion of these notes merely to […]
July 1, 2002
Pieces of Eight
So often treasure is tiny coins sayings with a petit range hardly worth recording. Break down a big task into bits like food chewed slowly. Be constant to a tiny […]
July 1, 2002
Lake
April. Shadows crimson-edged, tattooed with light, corrupt the visible in sweet intimacy. Nature's tamed backyard with ruined barbecue falls toward the sinkhole lake, cricket frogs creaking through the reeds, a […]
July 1, 2002
Cat’s-Eye
My father waved good-bye. I didn't wave back, scared I might drop my new cold smoky marble. At the core a spiral glinted and coiled like a small windy flame […]
July 1, 2002
Variation on Bashō’s Snow Party
Could we not have an air party taking tea at the window then, sinuses prepared, walking gathering lungfuls, the way leaves are swept into wide open-necked sacks and afterwards comparing […]
July 1, 2002
Truth
From the French. A taste of honeyed apples, and of something Slightly acid escorts the heavy tears Of wine, and its green-reflected amber Speaks of long-past autumns. The debate Between […]
July 1, 2002
Home
1. You winced in the rocking chair, waiting for your water to break. I paced the outer edge of the raffia carpet. A radio was playing, as if there were […]