Country Fair (Charles Simic)

I was unable to write a post yesterday because the internet connection at my house died. It magically restored itself at about midday today, so now I'm back at it. The poet for today I had no idea of until the leader of my workshop mentioned him in passing one day. I haven't spent much time with this poem, so all comments will be very off-the-cuff.

The poem is so simple. It could easily be written out in prose. I'm not lost at all when it comes to what went on. That, by itself, is a show of great writing. What I like in the poem is that the "whole show" includes both the dog, running after a stick, and the couple, drunk and laughing. That the show (and for that matter, the poem) allows for space to think of "other things" -- like the couple, their drunkenness and their lust is kind of great.

The country fair and poems are similar. They both start out showing one particular thing--"six-legged dog," "Country Fair," but they do so in such ways that the viewer/the reader can meander from the stated topic and get what they can from the show. Is it wrong that N focused as much on the kissing couple as he did the dog? Is it wrong that instead of getting that the poem is a picture of the country fair, I see a bigger point?

Favorite line: "If you didn't see the six-legged dog,/It doesn't matter."