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Day 28: Love Song by Eileen Myles

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

Author headshotEileen 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 graphic

2021 Queer Poem a Day


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.

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