Thursday Love Poems by Mark Strand

Micah‘s Friday love poem post got me thinking that it’s been some time since we’ve had a proper Thursday Love Poem feature here on The Dad Poet.  If you’re a new visitor and don’t know what a Thursday Love Poem is, you can check out the original here.  The feature is based on Edna St. Vincent Millay’s  poem called “Thursday,” which goes like this:

AND if I loved you Wednesday,
Well, what is that to you?
I do not love you Thursday–
So much is true.

And why you come complaining
Is more than I can see.
I loved you Wednesday,–yes–but what
Is that to me?

Basically, a candidate for the Thursday Love Poem feature is “not your grandmother’s love poem,” if it’s a love poem at all. Sometimes, like the original it’s based on, it’s an anti-love poem but at the very least a proper TLP does not approach the topic of romance in any way that you normally would expect. “Killing Mark” by Richard Blanco is a good, creative example.

For today’s feature, we have three poems from a reading by Mark Strand done 16 years ago, starting with “The Couple,” of which Mark says at the beginning of this video, “Something in me wishes this wasn’t my poem.”

3 Comments Add yours

  1. Alas alas. Wow. Great way to start a bitter windy snowy Thursday in March. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Brian Dean Powers says:

    Very much disliked Strand’s poem. It felt cynical and false. Blanco’s is so much better, and he’s a fine reader as well.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Yes, I am still not sure what I think of it. But I do think Strand is wise to say that part of him wishes the poem wasn’t his. I was wondering if it was requested by the audience.

      Like

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