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Poem | Dec 01 2001

The frontispiece, if that is the word (although, yes, I realize it is not; a frontispiece is an illustration) of Ron Padgett’s splendiferous (I learned that word from e. e. cummings; it means splendid but sounds a lot fancier than splendid) collection of poems entitled Toujours l’amour, which Rachel informs me means Always Love:

Post-Publication Blues

My first book of poems
has just been published.
It is over there on the table
lying there on the table, where
it is lying. It has
a beautiful cover and design.
The publishers spent a lot of money
on it and devoted many
man- and woman-hours to it.
The bookstores are ordering copies.
Unfortunately I am a very bad poet and
the book is not good.