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.
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
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 our series is from Excursions Op. 20, Movement 1, by Samuel Barber, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by a generous donation from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library.