The Lesson of the Moth (archy--->Don Marquis)

I brought this poet to workshop tonight. I made certain that we read this one poem and then let people pick at random. Since all of his stuff is great it was a very enjoyable evening.

What I (and I imagine every single person who reads an archy poem) love(s) is that Marquis' lines and phrasing are so well constructed that you don't need capitals or punctuation to lead you through a proper reading. For instance, at poetry tonight the poems were all new to most people and yet no one ever stumbled. That's true great poetry. Words are all you need. Funny that you need a cockroach (which is what archy is) to bring that truth out into the open and really drive it home.

As for the poem, it's wonderful too. That intense desire for beauty, even though it means destruction, is reminiscent of almost all addictions--be it through art or heroin. archy is so conservative with his "i would rather have/half the happiness and twice/the longevity" and yet, even he, like perhaps the majority of mankind, wishes for understanding and knowledge of what that desire must be like (but only for a moment and never to its destructive end). Yay! to archy and to Marquis for bringing that truism to light.

Favorite line: "so we wad all our life up/into one little roll/and then we shoot the roll"