Feature > Poetry
Wyn Cooper

Wyn Cooper

Wyn Cooper is the author of four books of poems, most recently Chaos is the New Calm (BOA Editions, 2010). His poems appear in 25 anthologies of contemporary poetry and more than 100 magazines. He lives in Vermont and works as a freelance editor.

The first two lines of this poem instantly tell the reader to be prepared for darkness, for the news of the title to be bad news. The poem then works its way to its chilling conclusion, "she follows me from room to room with open eyes." What strikes me about the poem most is the empathy Kurt displays, the careful use of language to build a poem that shows us how he feels about the poor, the hungry, the murdered. It's an empathy that matches his own personality. The second thing that strikes me about the poem is how dark it is. Kurt's poems became darker as he grew older, though he remained the same even-tempered, generous person to the end.

I think I picked this poem because of the title; those of us who knew and loved Kurt Brown are still living with the news that he's no longer with us. Our world's a little darker, a little smaller, but we have his poems, and that is the good news.


Living With the News

These pictures     what do they tell

the day is a widow     the morning an open grave

it's not my hand that strikes them down

while I eat     their heads grow thinner
while I sleep     they murder in their dreams

they swim before me like fish in a bowl

is the body really this translucent

a disconsolate woman clings to her child
small and shrunken as a fly

when I've had my fill     I rise from the table

she follows me from room to room with open eyes

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