Antonio D'Alfonso
The Two Headed Man
Collected Poems 1970-2020
Guernica Editions Inc.
ISBN 9781771835497 (softcover)
Available from: www.guernicaeditions.com
Poetry isn't always given the attention it deserves. Too many people think that reading poetry is hard work and not worth it, that poets aren't in touch with reality and have nothing relevant to say regarding an ordinary person's daily life.
They forget that nobody's ordinary. They forget that poets know reality far too well. They don't seem to be aware that reading poetry, the words of a poem, isn't hard work and that it's worth it to take the words in and see what was done with them.
This is a poem from the book:
To the Reader
Frightfully foolish having to be reminded
Not to step too quickly over those who
Cross your busy path, a crucifixion.
Taken by surprise, unforeseen.
Must we be deliberately overlooked
As though we were forgotten garbage bins,
Sticky, stinky? As if rotting
In the confinement of self-talk and
Evaluation down the addict's alley
Was our ultimate ideal.
We come alive with your listening.
We come alive with your reading.
We live for your heinous eyes,
For your montrous strictures.
Because of you we consider ourselves free.
Because of you, dear reader, are we totally free.
If you recognize us by the street-light
Of your readings, wave your hand,
Your fingers have a way
Of changing pain somehow
Somewhere into tenderness.
It just struck me, along with many of the other poems in different ways, because if readers allow the critics to tell them what a work is and what its value is, instead of reading the work themselves, the readers, and even those who don't read, will be cheated out of a good part of their lives.
In the title poem, the two-headed man reads night and day and multiplies himself. If you want to be multiplied, read this book. You'll never be alone.
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