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Thursday, October 1, 2009

Arts The First Two Lines

Posted by Christopher Frizzelle on Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 12:00 PM

The tree is an arbiter that
aims to leave but lives to claim.

Those are the first two lines of a poem by Heather McHugh published in The Stranger this week, to celebrate her MacArthur win last week. I can't get them out of my head—the image, the stacked sounds, the the closeness (in my brain, at least) of "arbiter" to "arborist," that "aims to leave" to describe what a tree does, the vectors of longing shooting in opposite directions ("aims to leave but lives to claim"), even though the words sound like they were always meant to be next to each other ("leave"/"lives" in the middle of the line, and "aims"/"claim" on each end)—and they are only the first 13 words. Every time I think of these two lines (or look at a tree—look at them out there!), my brain explodes again.

The rest of the poem is HERE.

This is only the second time we've published a poem with a straight face. The first time—when we announced, on the cover, that hell had frozen over—was this poem by Sherman Alexie. The tree photo is by wonderlane in the Flickr pool.

Comments (6) RSS

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Christopher, you go ahead and proudly let your head explode. I think your brain spatters are the most beautiful brain spatters in the world. I'm actually hoping for some gray matter bukake from you, if at all possible!!!

Posted by baconpussy on October 1, 2009 at 12:02 PM

I loved that the poem was printed, and McHugh is a master with sound. But doesn't "aims to leave" sound a little like the pun punchline to a joke? Anyone?

Posted by Mattini on October 1, 2009 at 12:24 PM

Poetry is sexy. I think I just fell a little in love with you, Christopher.

Do this more often, please.

Posted by Irena on October 1, 2009 at 12:29 PM

@2, yes it does, and it's supposed to. The next line has the tree compared to a drunk in a bar.

Posted by Irena on October 1, 2009 at 12:35 PM

If a tree falls in the forest, will it hit the drunk in the bar?

Or does he have to leave his barstool and wander outside?

Posted by Will in Seattle

on October 1, 2009 at 12:51 PM

Astounding! Thank you so much for publishing it!

I love that you rarely publish poems. Makes it feel like an event. Poetry seems to matter so little these days. And you're helping make it matter.

Keep setting the bar high!

Posted by fluteprof on October 2, 2009 at 7:27 AM