 |
Nutshell Kingdom: How to Make Someone's Day a Little Poignant
2005
How many times have you been in your local bookseller's on a good browse through the poetry section, looking for exciting books of poems by exciting young poets and found the name of a long-lost friend written on the spine and so you take the book up, thin, there's a cool photo on the cover, something gray and mysterious, doubtless some everyday object shot in close-up?
You read the back cover bio, she's living in Taos or Burlington, VT, married to some actor or novelist, gaze at the picture on the back, they look great, a little older but they have aged well, youth did not suit them so much maybe...There's nothing happier than a published friend.
How many times have you opened the book of poems written by a friend and being sold at full price at your local bookseller's to find that every single poem is about you, tells of feelings so deeply hidden that you had no clue, no idea whatsoever, always assumed that you were a convenience to her, all those years ago, a mere 'friend with occasional benefits," but no, there you are, poem after poem describing your smell, your little late-night anecdotes, that weird Martin Denny album you used to play at parties, your failings and blindnesses, a certain coat, a particular tequila-fuelled fantasy that even you have trouble cataloging properly, etc?
It's only happened to me twice, but both times it made the rest of my day a little poignant.
