'An orphan of silence'

 

“Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.” – Charles Simic

 

Born in Serbia in May of 1938, Simic emigrated to the U.S. at age 16, served in the U.S. Army and then studied at New York University where he began his writing career.  A multiple award winner for his works, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The World Doesn't End.

 

He served as co-poetry editor of The Paris Review in the 1990s; was the U.S. Poet Laureate in 2008-09; and won the Robert Frost Medal for “lifetime achievement in poetry” in 2011.  A prolific writer, Simic authored 40 books of poetry, the last one (No Land In Sight) published shortly before his death in 2023.   For Saturday’s Poem, here is Simic’s,

 

                                                Country Fair

If you didn't see the six-legged dog,
It doesn't matter.
We did, and he mostly lay in the corner.
As for the extra legs,

One got used to them quickly
And thought of other things.
Like, what a cold, dark night
To be out at the fair.

Then the keeper threw a stick
And the dog went after it
On four legs, the other two flapping behind,
Which made one girl shriek with laughter.

She was drunk and so was the man
Who kept kissing her neck.
The dog got the stick and looked back at us.
And that was the whole show.