Kizer, Carolyn 1999
with Allison Joseph
The young dandies drop ice into the drinks,
While the girls slice the succulent lotus root.
Above us, a patch of cloud spreads, darkening
Like a water-stain on silk.
– Carolyn Kizer, “After Tu Fu”
Listen to Carolyn Kizer’s 1999 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:
Audio PlayerWe who must act as handmaidens
To our own goddess, turn too fast,
Trip on our hems, to glimpse the muse
Gliding below her lake or sea,
Are left, long-staring after her,
Narcissists by necessity;
– Carolyn Kizer, “A Muse of Water”
Read an interview with Carolyn Kizer from the Paris Review:
The Art of Poetry No. 81
Carolyn Kizer was born in Spokane, Washington on December 10, 1925, a birth date shared with Emily Dickinson. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, studied at Columbia University as a fellow of the Chinese government and, in 1946, became a graduate fellow at the University of Washington…
I let the smoke out of the windows
And lift the hair from my ears.
A season of birds and reaping,
A level of light appears.
– Carolyn Kizer, “Complex Autumnal”
Listen to archived recordings of Carolyn Kizer, with an introduction to her life and work, on the Poetry Foundation’s Essential American Poets Podcast:
Audio Player