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In the Summer of Bowering, Geist blogger and Poetry Is Dead magazine Editor-in-Chief Daniel Zomparelli will be reviewing George Bowering's latest poetry collection, My Darling Nellie Grey. The collection is divided into twelve chapters, named for each month of the year, and Zomparelli will review one chapter a week all summer long.
The May chapter is a glance through the travels of George Bowering in Europe. He uses his writing/notes from his trip in May of 1966 to write the poems of this chapter, which is a great way to form poems of your own. Taking the words you have already written to inspire new works is always a great suggestion as a writing prompt.
To keep the Summer of Bowering interesting, I will refrain from a review of this chapter, and instead, post my favourite poem from the month of May (with permission of Talon Books). Enjoy!
The Greek relics
By George Bowering
In Hellas, nothing has changed in 2500 years.
The kiosks in Constitution Square offer Teen Muscles magazines,
along with chewing gum, worry beads and Henry Miller books.
I was looking at the back of the head of a lovely young
blonde woman from northern Europe. Her shiny face
had been a foot from Poseidon's bronze groin
for fifteen minutes.
One was surrounded by marble,
by the centuries of men struggling with their chisels.
But at the rain-threatened Acropolis
a short homely Greek guard
hoiked and spat on the Parthenon floor.
From up there Athens was a wide cluster of white buildings.
Down there again it was a crush of people in black.
You can follow along with Summer of Bowering by buying My Darling Nellie Grey at Talon Books. If you have a review for this chapter, please post it in the comment section.
