creative writing with a number of outstanding poets, translators, and fellow students. He is the co-translator, with Steven F. White and Christopher Maurer, of Federico Garcia Lorca's Poet in New York, published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1988. He is currently employed in the wine industry.
2 . 24 . 12
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You cannot choose what music
you will hear. It comes fully
dressed, ready to be undressed,
resembling freshwater waves,
or mist from a morning’s rain.
It seeks your skin, rough or soft
or darkened by thin blue smoke
from a fire we built beside
a lake. The goddess and I
did not make love in a tent
below Mt. Olympus.
She wrapped herself completely
in a tight silky cocoon
I could not
imagine
unraveling.
03 . 06 . 12
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Symmetry, a poet once
wrote, symmetry. And lions.
And panthers. We must change our lives.
But we must live our life,
even if the power of it
rips into us like a coal miner
advancing along dark veins
in the center of the earth
with nothing on his mind
but lust. I want that harsh fire.
I want my center to burn
with what I feel about her
inside me, inside me like
whirling knives, and smoke, and fire!
WRITE YOUR POEM!
In Greek mythology, Eurydice was an oak nymph or one of the daughters of Apollo. She was the wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music. (Wikipedia)
These poems are a series of sonnets dedicated to her, and Greg does an incredible job of embodying the love poets pour onto the page.
Intriguingly, he sets up a masterful collection of sonnets. The origin of the word sonnet comes through Italian for "song" and originally from Latin from "Sonus" which gives us "sound" and thus connects poetry in the Western tradition to a deep sense of the musical. Thus, Greg's poetry about the wife of Orpheus, the renowned poet and musician, are matched with the form he chose.
Form: Although fallen out of fashion in the 20th century with free verse, there is still a modicum of matching the form to the message. What vessel (form) are you using for the sweet wine (flavor) of your poem? Greg matches the vessel to the wine, and the sweetness of his love for the wife of Orpheus comes through in his poetry.
