Memories of My Father
I’m privileged to have a copy of Andrew Levy’s “Memories of My Father” in my hand. Apparently, it’s a difficult book to get one’s hands on, and since I am feeling better (and finally diagnosed!), I’m diving in. Being sick for any length of time raises questions those of us who have had health for awhile might never consider. One can label them the usual issues regarding life, death, how to live, time’s limitations, etc., but I’m finding, not-so-coincidentally, Levy’s poems resonate in a way that strikes chords, or even, echoes of thoughts now fading with health’s return. It’s especially good to be reminded of the vitality of poetry and how poetry is life; the rest, such as work and getting to the store, is maintenance. It takes a poem to get at the poetry of living, so to speak. I hope Andrew won’t mind me sharing a couple of his poems with you below.
~~~~
A Poem Can Also Die
To be a person without a style
The business plan?
I think everyone’s had about enough
Fill in with something …
The permission to produce our personal lives presents
the performances we love
And these words
Shall be upon they heart
The market we want most
Our friends and neighbors
Will be there
~~~~~
With Notice
I am glad that he left peacefully
Without prejudice
Just to be yourself
You’re risking your life
Leftover
Minds go mad
What to do
~~~~~~
From Memories of My Father by Andrew Levy
AMY KING View All →
Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) Award. Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She co-edited with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She also co-edits the anthology series, Bettering American Poetry, and is a professor of creative writing at SUNY Nassau Community College.
AMY KING 
Glad you’re feeling better. Did you have a tilt table test? How was it? You can’t stand there and read, can you?
Thanks, Jilly! The test was boring, except the nurse was chatting with me while I was “cheating.” I was moving my feet to maintain blood pressure; the cardiologist came in and called me on it. About eight minutes later of standing completely still, my pressure suddenly dropped to fainting, and they put the table down quickly. She diagnosed me at that point. The part I hated was when they gave me synthetic adrenaline while lying down. I didn’t get the full blown dose (just for four minutes too), but it was miserable. If you’re not diagnosed without it, they give it to you while in the standing position. Glad I didn’t need that part of the test. I’m still feeling not-so-hot and off kilter, which is common right after the test. Looking forward to feeling better!
Do you need to get the test?