The Revered Poet Instructs Her Students on the Importance of Revision

by Kim Addonizio

[from Tell Me (BOA Editions, 2000)]



Listen. I’m trying to tell you

how easily the poem you thought

was a beautiful woman becomes

cronelike by a kind of witchery.

How easy, you thought, to write a poem:

you scrawled last night in your journal

and in the morning, by a kind of witchery,

the poem was born, perfect, immortal.

But soon, too soon, what you scrawled in your journal

begins moaning, pitches forward and wails, hating

itself, the fact that it was ever born–imperfect, mortal

and suffering the way everything suffers,

every moaning lover, every wailing child,

each creature destined to be isolate and alone

and suffering the way everything suffers,

but I said that, didn’t I, explained already about suffering

and about each one of you, destined to be isolate and alone

because writing is lonely work, is what I’m trying to say,

did I say that, did I explain already? I’m suffering

through your poems, and my own, oh God I feel

so desperately lonely is what I’m trying to say,

look at you you’re so young all of you,

I don’t care about your poems, or my own,

do you know how fast it goes, all I want is to be

as young as all of you, look at you

you’re so fucking clueless, oh I want

my life back, where did it go, I want it all to be

different but I’m standing here, lecturing again–

on what, on what? Oh fuck it,

listen, I was a beautiful woman,

you think I want to be standing here, lecturing? Look again.

Listen. I’m trying to tell you.

(c) 2000 by Kim Addonizio, all rights reserved

Included in the Crisis Chronicles Library with the poet’s permission

We gratefully acknowledge BOA Editions, Ltd,

publishers of Kim Addonizio’s

Tell Me (2000),where this poem originally appearedHere’s a biography borrowed from her official website, www.kimaddonizio.com

Kim Addonizio is the author of five poetry collections including Tell Me, A National Book Award Finalist. Her fifth collection, Lucifer at the Starlite, was published by W.W. Norton in 2009.

Addonizio has also authored two instructional books on writing poetry: The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux), and Ordinary Genius: A Guide for the Poet Within, both from W.W. Norton.

Her first novel, Little Beauties, was published by Simon & Schuster in August 2005 and came out in paperback in July 06. Little Beauties was chosen as “Best Book of the Month” by Book of the Month Club. My Dreams Out in the Street, her second novel, was released by Simon & Schuster in 2007.

She also has a word/music CD with poet Susan Browne, “Swearing, Smoking, Drinking, & Kissing,” available from cdbaby; a book of stories, In the Box Called Pleasure (FC2); and the anthology Dorothy Parker’s Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos, coedited with Cheryl Dumesnil.

Addonizio’s awards include two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship,a Pushcart Prize, a Commonwealth Club Poetry Medal, and the John Ciardi Lifetime Achievement Award.Her poetry, fiction, and essays have appeared widely in anthologies, literary journals, and textbooks, including Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Bad Girls, Chick-Lit, Dick for a Day, Gettysburg Review, Paris Review, Penthouse, Poetry, and Threepenny Review. She teaches private workshops in Oakland, CA, and online.



Please check out these fine volumes of Kim Addonizio’s poetry and prose: