Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
Love Song
by Eileen Myles
The sky hates me
I must be calm
I must be calm
if I have any
chance of good
ness
at all
a child in
a snowstorm
a man faces
death
slow
a gibbet
is hanging
I don’t
know what
it is
for a few
dollars
I can save
a horse
a deer
must hide
my dog
is far away
your dog
a joker
is close
a man travels
with
a wolf
& that is Victor
Hugo
his inkiness
is pure
translation
perhaps
I have
charm
in my
native
language
shelves
pushed up
against
each
other to
jam
the door
flinging
it open
I am
terribly
in love
with you
I cite
your gifts
I suggest
I am best
without
you and yet
this yellow
wind
I saw
the day
you were
there
and I never
felt such
desire
I say
I am
in decline
how could
you possibly
want this
alone
I’m strong
alone
I’m a muffin
I offer
you a
piece
of my
charm
and relinquish
my attachment
to being
a hermit
in an
old
wooden
house
I am kindly
to your
child
he is
ours.
Copyright © 2021 by Eileen Myles. Used with the permission of the author. Originally published on Queer Poem-a-Day on the Deerfield Public Library Podcast on June 28, 2021.
About the Author
Eileen Myles (they/them) came to New York from Boston in 1974 to be a poet. Their books include For Now (an essay/talk about writing), I Must Be Living Twice: New and Selected Poems 1975 – 2014, and Chelsea Girls. They showed their photographs in 2019 at Bridget Donahue, NYC. Eileen has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and an award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters. They live in New York and Marfa, TX. For more: eileenmyles.com
2021 Queer Poem a Day
- Day 1: Pride Month by Shelley Wong
- Day 2: Is This or Is This True as Happiness by Derrick Austin
- Day 3: Nature Poem by Sam Herschel Wein
- Day 4: Ana I Don’t Forget by Gala Mukomolova
- Day 5: Eavesdropping on Adam and Eve by Andrea Cohen
- Day 6: Billow of Thistles by Ruben Quesada
- Day 7: Prayer for My Trans Siblings by H. Melt
- Day 8: Summer by Chen Chen
- Day 9: Embers by Henri Cole
- Day 10: Male Beauty by Richie Hofmann
- Day 11: [unsent draft] by Rachel Mennies
- Day 12: Forty by Julia Guez
- Day 13: Of Contour, of Cadence by Phillip B. Williams
- Day 14: The Men We Loved by Cyril Wong
- Day 15: Riding the Bus Back to Oxford by Catherine Pond
- Day 16: The Window by Jay Besemer
- Day 17: Want Could Kill Me by Xandria Phillips
- Day 18: What a Waste by Jill McDonough
- Day 19: Eros by Randall Mann
- Day 20: An Act by Michael M. Weinstein
- Day 21: Things I Didn’t Do With this Body and Things I Did by Amanda Gunn
- Day 22: Puzzle Pieces by D. A. Powell
- Day 23: Duplicity by Jameson Fitzpatrick
- Day 24: Is It True All Legends Once Were Rumors by Carl Phillips
- Day 25: High School Sleepovers with Straight Girls by Julian Guy
- Day 26: Abu Nuwas by Kazim Ali
- Day 27: Observation Car by Lauren Clark
- Day 28: Love Song by Eileen Myles
- Day 29: Donuts by Dan Kraines
- Day 30: The Lone Palm by Jenny Johnson
Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this second year of our series is the first movement, Schéhérazade, from Masques, Op. 34, by Karol Szymanowski, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.
