Poet Laureate

Congratulations to Charles Simic, this nation's newest Poet Laureate.

When I heard the news this morning, I went to my bookshelf pulled down my Simic favorites, "Walking The Black Cat", "Selected Poems", and "School For Dark Thoughts". As Poet Laureate should, he inspired me all over again.

In honor of one of my favorite living poet's recent honor, next week's "Line Break" is devoted to the man who had "Hitler and Stalin as travel agents" - Charles Simic.

"Watch Repair" was the first Simic poem I read. The moment,the poem- vivid and profound as personal tragedy, still awakens in me a great love for small things and words.


Watch Repair

A small wheel
Incandescent,
Shivering like
A pinned butterfly.

Hands thrown up
In all directions:
The crossroads
One arrives at
In a nightmare.

Higher than that
Number 12 presides
Like a beekeeper
Over the swarming honeycomb
Of the open watch.

Other wheels
That could fit
Inside a raindrop.

Tools
That must be splinters
Of arctic starlight.

Tiny golden mills
Grinding invisible
Coffee beans.

When the coffee's boiling
Cautiously,
So it doesn't burn us,
We raise it
To the lips
Of the nearest
Ear.

A short biography of Charles Simic is provided by the Academy of American Poets