A Very Short Coming-of-Age Poem For Two Voices

rob mclennan just got word that Irving Layton died today. From his email:

I just got an email from Ottawa poet Seymour Mayne that Montreal poet Irving Layton passed away today, two months shy of his 94th birthday. Information on Layton can be found at:

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/layton/
http://www.irvinglayton.com/
http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/faculties/HUM/ENGL/canada/poet/i_layton.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Layton
http://www.cbc.ca/lifeandtimes/layton.html
http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol2/no26/layton.html

rob

also you can read the tribute weblog that Tara has set up here: irvinglayton.blogspot.com
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So, in commemoration on my weblog here on johnwmacdonald.com, I have written two poems that Layton would probably approve of... or not.

A Very Short Coming-of-Age Poem For Two Voices

I'm lonely.
You're stupid.

I'm horny.
Yeah, me too.

I love you.
You stink bad.

See you then?
Go to hell.

Young Layton in my bathroom
[Ahh... read "car pet" for the son.]

Posing as did Rodin's Thinker
I thought it was Jesus at first read

But then they looked more like Lenin
Only with longer hair

At second sight it's a young Layton in my bathroom
His bust mystically etched on 121 mottled floor tiles

In varying angular positions of incongruous clarity
Framed as an accidental mosaic

You have to witness these poetic portraits for yourself
Sitting with fist against chin

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An Irving Layton inspired poem can be found here as well:

Stephen's http://phrenology1011.blogspot.com/2006/01/for-i-l-1912-2006.html