Preface to the “Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion” by Nick Lantz

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend January 15, 2015   Preface to the “Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion”   Nick Lantz

In the late spring of 1985, we met in the weedy lot of the Orchid Pavilion Nursery for a little ritual purification.   Everyone came, all the half-brothers and half-sisters, the children not yet born, and men so old they were young again.   We sat beside the aqueduct, and gold cans of beer floated down to us like the lines of poems.   The end of the twentieth century hung over us like a cartoon anvil, but the breeze that day was a knife so sharp   you couldn’t feel it cutting pieces off of you. But then, when it’s sunny, no one remembers how quickly a century turns over.   Our mothers always said that living and dying ran on the same business model, that one hand washed the other.   But how to tell that to the rat whose whiskers will be bound into the brush that inks these very lines about him?   No, there’s no use pretending the tears our mothers wept over newborn babies and the dead were even the same species of water.            Copyright © 2015 by Nick Lantz. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “‘Preface to the “Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion”’ is loosely adapted from a 4th-century masterpiece of calligraphy by Wang Xizhi. The original poem describes a gathering of poets, and speculates about how future generations will look back on their efforts.” —Nick Lantz   Nick Lantz is the author of How to Dance as the Roof Caves In (Graywolf Press, 2014). He teaches at Sam Houston State University and lives in Huntsville, Texas. Most Recent Book by Lantz   How to Dance as the Roof Caves In (Graywolf Press, 2014) "Horse Latitudes" by Jo Sarzotti "in the ruins" by Mark Conway "Continuity" by A. R. Ammons Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038