Eating Poetry By: Mark Strand
Created By: David Johnson
Biography of Mark Strand
Birth and Schooling
Mark Strand was born on Canada’s Prince Edward Island on April 11, 1934. He received a BA degree from Antioch College in Ohio in 1957 and attended Yale University, where he was awarded the Cook prize and the Bergin prize. After receiving his BFA degree in 1959, Strand spent a year studying at the University of Florence on a Fulbright fellowship. In 1962 he received his MA degree from the University of Iowa.Some of Strand's Accomplishments
He is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including:
- Collected Poems (Knopf/Random House, 2014)
- Almost Invisible (Knopf, 2012)
- New Selected Poems (Knopf, 2007)
- Man and Camel (Knopf, Alfred A. Knopf, 2006)
- Blizzard of One (Knopf, 1998), which won the Pulitzer Prize
- Dark Harbor(Knopf, 1993)
- The Continuous Life (Knopf, 1990)
- Selected Poems (Atheneum, 1980)
- The Story of Our Lives (Atheneum, 1973)
- Reasons for Moving (Atheneum, 1968)
Eating Poetry
By Mark StrandInk runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.
The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.
The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.
Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.
She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.
I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark.
My Thoughts About The Poem
Theme Of The Poem
This is an attempt to express what the subconscious mind is thinking and how it works as opposed to the realities that we experience in the conscious mind. The poem accomplishes this if one is to think out side the box about the meaning of the poem.