On the Edge Collected Long Poems

by KOCH, KENNETH

• ISBN13: 9780375711206
• ISBN10: 0375711201
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-06
• Publisher: Knopf

Summary

In paperback for the first time: Kenneth Koch's six masterly, groundbreaking longer poems, which contain some of the poet's most original work, full of exclamation and exaggeration but graced as well with dry wit and sophistication. Together they serve as the companion volume to the highly praisedCollected Poems of Kenneth Koch.

Author Biography

Kenneth Koch was the author of nineteen collections of poetry, short plays, and books about poetry and how to teach it. The recipient of numerous awards, Koch lived in New York City and taught at Columbia University. He died in 2002.

Excerpts

On the Edge is a collection of six long narrative poems by Kenneth Koch.
Here are excerpts from three of them.

Ko, Or a Season on Earth

Meanwhile at the University of Japan
Ko had already begun his studies, which
While making him an educated man
Would also give him as he learned to pitch
And catch—for Ko was more than a mere fan,
But wished as a playing member to do a hitch
With some great team—something to think about
More interesting than merely Safe and Out.

Inyaga, his professor, when he first
Appeared to Ko, seemed fashioned like an ape,
Protruding jaw and tiny eyes that burst
From high cheekbones of chimpanzee shape,
But later it was his teaching that Ko cursed,
Of which the body merely was the drape:
Inyaga taught him baseball was a sin.
Ko cried out! Inyaga; "Stop that din

At once, or else you'll suffer!" Ko subsides,
But his resentment every day gets greater.
Meanwhile the Dodgers all had taken brides
As was arranged for them by Mr. Slater,
Their crafty manager, who thus provides
A human interest for the fans, who, later,
When they find out his trick, will make him pay;
But for the moment it is Slater's day.



Impressions of Africa

In the great, bracing air of Kenya
The lion runs. Seeing a lion
And two lionesses together,
The Italian woman said,
"È il leone,
La sua moglie, e la sua madre"—
Id est, the wife's mother,
A sort of chaperone
To the lion and to his wife.

The lion's muscles
Are amazing. The air
Is filled with lions' grace.
Viewed without any
Human component around,
The lion is sensational
Simply of and in himself.



Seasons on Earth

In spite of the real suffering around me,
And poverty, and spite, I had the sense
That there was something else. Each midday found me
Ecstatically in the present tense,
Writing. And you would have eto come and pound me
Quite hard to drag me from my innocence.
That sense that now seems almost unbelievable—
I love it, loved it—is it irretrievable?


From the Hardcover edition.

---

Excerpted from On the Edge: Collected Long Poems by Kenneth Koch
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.