52 Poems, Week 11: Note to J. Alfred Prufrock (Billy Collins)
03/15/2018
NOTE TO J. ALFRED PRUFROCK
I just dared to eat
a really big peach
as ripe as it could beand I have on
a pair of plaid shorts
and a blue tee shirt
with a hole in itand little rivers of juice
are now running down my chin and wrist
and dripping onto the pool deck.What is your problem, man?
*
Billy Collins was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003.
—Beth Thackston Brooks is a retired teacher and beach bum who doesn't appreciate TSE.
WONDERFUL response by Collins!
From C. S. Lewis (regarding the opening three lines of Prufrock):
A Confession
. . .
For twenty years I’ve stared my level best
To see if evening–any evening–would suggest
A patient etherized upon a table;
In vain. I simply wasn’t able.
Posted by: Mary | 03/15/2018 at 01:16 PM
Bah. I love Prufrock. But I have to admit Collins is funny.
I remember when the Allman Brothers Eat A Peach album came out I wondered if it was also a note to J. Alfred. Would have been fitting. I don't think it was though.
Posted by: Mac | 03/15/2018 at 05:09 PM
Glad to be challenged by Eliot and allowed to laugh at the dribbles down my chin, as well.
Posted by: Mary | 03/16/2018 at 06:32 AM
:-)
Posted by: Mac | 03/16/2018 at 08:07 AM