Reading David M. Dulkrazu’s “The Missing Stanza In Bryant Park”
The Missing Stanza
The tiny Asian woman who
Just walked past me as I sit
Reading a Billy Collins poem
About creating tension
With the word suddenly
Seems the missing stanza
That reveals tension also comes
From walking through a park
Clapping your hands loudly
And shouting obscenities
At no one in particular
David M. DulkrazuI commented:
I was reminded of the opening to Virginia Tufte’s “Artful Sentences” where her first quote is from Anthony Burgess’ Enderby:
And the words slide into the slots ordained by syntax, and glitter as with atmospheric dust with those impurities which we call meaning.
Anthony Burgess, Enderby, 406
And I noted the offending Billy Collins poem from here:
And I wrote a private “thank you” note to the author which turned into a response poem:
Suddenly, I am reminded
of David Hume,
but I can’t remember why.
Suddenly and muddily,
a dead carp of a phrase rises
from Sister Helen’s philosophy class
45 years ago.
“Constant conjunction, not causality”.
Unsuddenly,
I remember cinnamon
rind of orange
cloves
Grandmother’s English Breakfast tea
in nice china cups and saucers
“Constant Comment”
in dorm rooms.
This river of image
just as suddenly
dries up.
And just as suddenly the moment, it was over.