Your Best Interests At Heart

     Many a poet has tried to woo a woman with his work. Stephen Dunn is one of the few to actually marry one of his admirers. "I had taught his work for years," says his fellow academic/writer Barbara Hurd in the video below, "and admired his work, and that contrarian mind that he has."

   
     One of Dunn's contrarian characteristics is that he writes poetry in the modern age that does not flirt with obscurity. His poems prove that a writer can be conversational and clear without becoming simple-minded or dull.
     Our colleague Barbara Thomas recommends this piece from Stephen Dunn, inspiration to love-lorn versifiers everywhere.


     The Soul's Agents

   
     Every night before bed, say for a week,
     we recommend admitting a lie
     or a deception, sotto voce, a rogue’s prayer
     to the soul you know you have,
     no matter how tattered or dormant.
     Trust us, your secrets differentiate you
     from no one, but the soul awakens
     a little when it hears them.
    We have its interests at heart,
     which means your interests as well.

    Try to practice unsettling
    what remains settled in you—
    those ideas, for example,
    inherited, still untested.
    And if only you could raise
    your hypocrisy to the level of art,
    like forgery, there might be
    real hope for you.

    Some people of course expect
    to be rewarded for stumbling
    and rising from the floor
    and stumbling again, but we give
    no credit for living. We favor vitality
    over goodness, even over effort;
    we love a great belly laugh
    more than anything.

    In your case we do worry
    there may not be enough
    quarrel in you, or enough courage
    to acknowledge your worst inclinations.
    Know that the soul converts them
    into tenderness. Nothing pleases it more.

    So next week why not admit
    that what Raskolnikov did
    has always made you dream?
    The more you expose yourself
    the more you become unrecognizable.
    Remember, we are here to help.
    What you decide to keep from the world,
    tell us. We understand
    everything. We pass it on.