Where Are They Now? Lost Poets of the 70s: "Stoked with Stokesbury"
Tie on yer feed-bags Snarkers, because this is most certainly the best Where Are They Now? Lost Poets of the 70s offering to date, and it's going to be hard to top, you will agree when you read Leon Stokesbury's astonishing bit-o-verse. In case you are wondering, all of these are real poets and their real poems that I dug up from an old anthology (to be disclosed at the end of the series). Read this poem, and please, somebody explain to me what Stokesbury did to that "2-by-4 stable boy" with his "refried banana." Email this one to your lists poetry peeps, this snark is for the ages.
posted by Snark @ 5:26 AM
10 Comments:
I wish the baker would come.
all I can say is astonishing indeed, and this man should have a blog
It's all there--Keats Sr.'s livery stable, little John's penchant for fighting at school and getting his ass kicked because he was so small, and Yeats' picture of him with his face pressed to a sweet-shop window. Mr. Stokesbury has read me! A+!
Stokesbury teaches in the MFA program at Georgia State University, where he is largely loathed by his students for being obscure, a hard ass, and useless at commenting on poems. Just so as you know...
Bang, bang
You shot me down
Bang, bang...
Georgia State, not Florida State
Damn Leon, you look HOT. I wished I would have known you then. Of course, I was still practically a child but that's even more romantic really. A dashing young poet and his beautiful poet child bride. Who says a girl should be over 13 to marry? Anyway, I'm legal now Leon, so if you want to a new love let me know. And if you must know I've saved my knee socks and white cotton panties. And yes, Leon I love to be spanked. Did you really have to ask? Best of all, I live right here in Georgia. So, do me a favor and fashion that 2x4 into a paddle with your name carved in it and spank my bottom!Oh God, I hope that you're as kinky as I am!
Actually, Stokesbury and Bottoms hate each others' guts.
Do they really hate each other, or is it simply a lover's quarrel? They used to love each other so much. What did they fight over? The girls or boys in their classes? Who looks better in glasses? I'm on Leon's side all the way! Dave is way jealous of other poets. I'm sure it's all his damn fault. And damn, Leon is HOT!
Leon got Dave the job at GSU. What an ingrate!
Stokesbury is not lost - he is very clearly in the sights of anyone who chooses to find him. He was my mentor and (I would like to think) friend, and he changed my life in many practical and arcane ways, and would loan me change for the vending machines of the concrete halls of Georgia State during late-night lit classes. You people have no idea of him. You don't know his relationship with David Bottoms. You don't know that he is an insightful and tough teacher who is honest (I guess some people can't handle hearing that their precious poetry sucks) and won't tell you something is good when it isn't. And that he is also a talented painter. And that he is not gay, lecherous, misogynistic... he is just a poet. And you CLEARLY don't know his body of work. And you apparently just like to talk to hear yourselves talk, even when you sound ignorant (to wit: Pennebaker, if you're going to blog on a lit/pseudolit subject, at least learn to spell). I must thank you snarky folks, though - you have made me realize how protective I am, after 20 years, of one of the finest people and poets I have ever worked with. A little willful blind reverence, yes, but I maintain that no one can intone iambic pentameter like Stokesbury. Leave him alone except to praise him for he is a better poet than any of us.
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