RSSMen Who Love Straw Hats: Russell Edson
Apr 07
Poetry, Reading, Uncategorized, Writing edson, magical realism, poetry that makes your brain go all fuzzy in a good way 2 Comments
If I had to pick one poet who I could just follow around in hopes that some wonderfulness would rub off on me, I would pick Russell Edson. I was introduced to his work in an experimental forms class and fell in love right away. He has that ability that you see in writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Jorge Luis Borges to tell the most fantastic stories in a way that seems undeniably real. Women are married to apes and chairs fall in love and these are just the things of the every day.
Here are a few lines from his poem “Let Us Consider.”
Let us consider the farmer who makes his straw hat his
sweetheart; or the old woman who makes a floor lamp her son;
or the young woman who has set herself the task of scraping
her shadow off a wall….
You can read the full poem over at the Poetry Foundation’s site.
A question for my readers (if there are, in fact, any of you out there): Who is your favorite poet?