The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Fri 1/18/2008)

[RetroLounge]

Concerning a Bath

When you are very old and beautiful,
and, soaking in the bath, look down upon
the slender form in which you lived, and full
with memory think of the lovers gone,
will you remember me in these last days,
a harried, weakened man, pathetic, lost
because there is no joy inside your gaze
when you see me? I broke before you tossed
me in the trash, it’s true. Before the bath
turns cold, won’t you recall me strong in loving
you, as a man made whole by you, forgiving
my faults? Please do. You loved me, then you stopped,
but we were great once. Great. Then pain, then wrath.
Oh, well. Remember me the way you must.

Tony Barnstone


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Tony Barnstone is Professor of English at Whittier College and has a Masters in English and Creative Writing and Ph.D. in English Literature from UC Berkeley. His books of poems include The Golem of Los Angeles (Red Hen Press, winner, Benjamin Saltman Award, 2007). Sad Jazz: Sonnets (Sheep Meadow Press, 2005) and Impure: Poems by Tony Barnstone (University Press of Florida, 1998) in addition to the chapbook Naked Magic. His other books include Chinese Erotic Poetry (Everyman, 2007); The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry; Out of the Howling Storm: The New Chinese Poetry; Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Poems of Wang Wei; The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters; and the textbooks Literatures of Asia, Africa and Latin America, Literatures of Asia, and Literatures of the Middle East. He is the recipient of many national poetry prizes and of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council.


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:hi:

RL

[lizziegrace]

1. ...

:hug:

warm baths...

Nice poem. :)

[xchrom]

2. interesting to read that right now -- sunday i had a date with a guy

i was lovers with many, many years ago.

quite a revelation -- a kind of mirroring.

[RetroLounge]

7. Did you take a bath?

:spank: ===> RL

[hisownpetard]

3. Sweet, sweet poem. Thanks!

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear Retro...

This is a sad little work, very poignant...

I feel his loss and his sorrow here...

Quite lovely...

Thank you...

:hug:

[mzteris]

5. very evocative.

What a wonderful piece.

And thanks for the bio on the writer - I'll be looking for more his work.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

6. Remember me.

Oh yeah.

Thanks.