Pantechnicon; Anne Sexton

Gods Mrs. Sexton went out looking for the guards. She began looking in the sky inspecting a large white angel with a blue crotch. No when she looked next in all the learned books and the prints spat back at her. No one. She made a pilgrimage to the great poet and he belched in her face. No one. She prayed in all the churches of the world and learned a great deal about culture. No one she wanted to the Atlantic the Pacific for surely God no one. She went to the board of the Brum of the pyramids and found immense postcards. No one. Then she journeyed back to our own house and the gods of the world were shocked in the lavatory.

At last she cried out and locked the door. It's a confrontation with death and the original idea was to have a book come out after I die. And because I seem that Hemingway I just read that Hemingway had a new book out the moveable feast it was and I thought how nice. You know one goes on but I thought how nice to confront the very thing that has happened. But to my friends all laughed. For all that I am and. The first three or four poems follow this theme and then I get into a whole series called The fury poems and I fell in love. And then there were others I fell in love with and I couldn't wait in one of the hole enough and by the way is published all my books on how many books have like published in the US.

I think it's 7 that money there will be a forthcoming one next year. All of your books have been poetry is that right. They have been although in the book of folly there are three short stories. There is one poem in your latest book The Death notebooks which has to do with the whale. John Yes well Jonah and the Whale you talk about Jonah's death and how he was spewed out again and how he had told the media how he had news media and news media how he had died and that he had put him in the marketplace and I I had the sense you felt that he had been exploiting you. Yes and I and I danced to that and then I said my death the same. But of course you see at this point I'm thinking I'm you know this is going to be posthumous. Did you feel that the media.

Well Israel certainly would not say no no no which I do would be happily exploited. You know I mean even John and he didn't need to tell the news media. That's true but I mean he thought it was pretty fascinating news. Do you feel that you know what you're saying in the death notebooks is a little different from some of your other books what it is that you're trying to get across. Well it's much more confrontation with death. And and it has a lot to do with God. It's not very much of a in father. Yes it's quite religious the following book of the book of next year is called the awful rowing toward God and it's totally based on whether this has some more variety. Yes. Would you say that all of your work or at least most of the work is autobiographical. Mostly but I fool people by saying

my brother or I did had or this happened already using the persona I win isn't me at all. And people writing critical reviews of course and Saxon with her dead brother and I never had a brother. And little did they know. Well I mean that's mean in real life because how can one tell what's what but it leaves me a little latitude although I don't know if I planned it that way. I'm thinking about planning Marcel Marceau has talked about how he works on a skit perhaps for two years subconsciously he sings and then all of a sudden it comes to the front and he puts it on stage immediately. How long do you feel it takes you in order to form in your mind a certain poem. I realize it varies. I have no I mean I can't be aware but sometimes I'll be thinking about it for three weeks or a month or I know of the

awful rowing towards God must have taken a long time unconsciously because it came out in two and a half weeks I had it it was no way to get out of the I write it and go by I was up at five and stopped it you know. But. Then I had to rewrite it. Someone you know actually do you work at home most of the time. Always not always I mean I might be stuck somewhere and have a pencil and paper and write and do you try and set up work habits such as Hemingway. No not at all. None of that. I just write when you feel like write yeah but I often feel like writing somehow. I mean it's a way of life you are and could be at any hour it's usually not too early not before 10 I'd say. When did you start writing and how old were you when you started writing. Wish I could. I think it was a weenie seven twenty seven. Yes. And do you

find that your writing has helped you in any way in terms of bringing you back to a sense of health because you were in a mental hospital for what was an on and off a long time but sometimes two days they did you know it while you were in the hospital. I did right in the hospital. And you mention that. Then rewrote it of course at home. We wrote this as a matter of fact one book took me four years four years which one has long live or dead. And you do a great deal of travelling in order to read from your books. Yes all all over the country related cept I have been on the West Coast. I like to explore the bounds of poetry as a matter of fact when I was in Baltimore. And it was a very fine and John Hopkins very fine reading I mean very fine

audience. I went later where someone to a topless place you know and I happened to know the manager and I said the manager. Would it interest you if I read a poem and here are these girls you know waiting lists I have in this top Why yes he said divine. And so I did and I said it Scuse me for being so close but my poetry is naked. All that's one and I read two kind of sexy poems and it was you know my first one and then I sat down and they beg me and you were the hit of the evening I was the lead of the evening they said I give them the real class. And do you feel that you have. But do you see how I try I want to reach. I want to reach the people not just. Academia but but if you know any anyone everyone I want to see where

poetry can go and what their life is made up. Yeah so you and I feel as though my life although somewhat peculiar could be that different from someone else's. And what you have time to read something for us please would love to share. Shall I read from the death note books first. Yes please. And this comes with a fury. S. This was originally published in The New Yorker but I don't know if it's hard for someone from the south to understand it because it's about now and overshoes by daybreak. I was in Texas and I say please raise your hands if you've ever worn overtures to see if I should read it. But the fury of overshoes. They sit in a row outside the kindergarden block red or with those brass buckles.

Remember when you couldn't buckle your own overshoe or tie your own shoe or cut your own meat. And the tears running down like my do because you fell off your tri cycle. Remember big fish when you couldn't swim and simply slipped under like a stone frog. The world wasn't yours. It belonged to the big people under your bed sat the wolf and he made a shadow when the cars passed by at night. They made you give up your night light and your teddy and your of. Oh overshoes Don't you remember me pushing you up and down in the winter snow. Oh thought I would drink. It is dark. Where are the big people.

When will I get there. Taking giant steps. Oh all day each day and thinking nothing of it. There's a long section. Affirmation of God and this one is about Jesus. It's a little metaphorical it's hard to understand the most important law and are the last two. Jesus walking when Jesus walked into the wilderness. He can write man on his back. At least it had the form of a man a fisherman bar hops with a wet nose a beggar perhaps with flour in his hours. The man was dead it seems.

And yet he was shallow bowl. Jesus carried many a man yet there was only one. If indeed he was a man there in the wilderness Oliva's reached out their hand. By Jesus when down by the bees beckoned them to their honey. But Jesus went on by the bore cut out its heart and offered it up. But Jesus went on with his heavy burden. The devil approached and slapped him on the jaw and Jesus walked on. The devil made the earth move like an elevator. And Jesus walked on. The devil builds a city of horrors each in little angel beds. Then Jesus walked on with this burden for 40 days for

40 nights. Jesus poured one for two in front of the other and the man he carried. If it was a man and became a happier and happier he was carrying all the trees of the world which are one tree he was carrying forty which I won. He was carrying all the boots of all the men in the world which are one boot. He was carrying our blood. One blood to prayer. Jesus knew he was to be a man carrying a man. Thank you. Those are some of the examples from your book a new book by holding off on the death yes another death in the book.

I'd like to read the first poem from love poems love poems as kind of the story of a man and woman falling in love and then parting. But this is the first one and there is no parting in it that touch for months my hand had been sealed off in a tin box. Nothing was there but subway railings. Perhaps it is proved I thought. And that is why they have locked it up. But when I looked in it lay there quietly you could tell time by their side thought like a clock by its five not calls and thin and a ground vein and

it lay there like an unconscious woman fed by tubes she knew not of. That and had collapsed a small wood pigeon that I'd gone into seclusion. I turned it over and the pup was old its lines traced like fine needle point and stitched up into the fingers. It was found at the end of it and line in place is nothing but vulnerable. And all this is metaphor and no ordinary and just lovely for something to touch that touch is back. The dog won't do it. Her tail wags in the swamp for a frog. I'm no better than a case of dog food. She owns her own home or my sisters won't do it.

They live in school except for buttons and tears running down like lemonade. My father won't do it. He comes over the house and even at night. He lives in a machine made by my mother and well oiled by his jaw his jaw. The trouble was that I'd let my gestures freeze. The trouble was not in the kitchen or the tulips but only in my head to my head. Then all of this became history your and and life rushed to my fingers like a blood clot. Oh my carpenter. The fingers are rebuilt. They

danced with yours. They dance in the Arctic and in Vienna my hand is alive all over America. Not even death will stop it. Def shedding her blood nothing will stop it. For this is the king and the king come. Thank you very very much. It's been a pleasure. Good luck with all your poetry with your life. Thank you. This poem comes from live or die which won the

Pulitzer. I don't really believe it's my best book but perhaps as people say to me you know you won the prize for the wrong book it being a previous one. No my pretty one and or some other one. And I am right. How did your daughter enjoy the poem she loves it. Both daughters enjoyed the poems written for them. Have you read a great deal do you John do you write for them a great deal of them and read to them when they were growing up. Well I think you have a very good point when you mention them in the Christian religion. There is no celebration of the coming of age such as in the Hebrew. Yes yes sir. Yes on the boys anyway. Yes. If they if they have to the girls that yes yes yes I forgot the name of it I don't know what it's but I'm blocking it but that particular poem some I just suddenly thought. So many mothers had this feeling.

I know because I hear from them and. Do you get a lot of letters from people. Yes I do too many. Well I never would say too many because it's nice to get feedback and find out there are there's someone out there. Which book has been the most favorite. You think oh I don't know it's very hard to tell even from the number of a lot of us. Well they change of course with each book but not always so often it will be different. You know an older book The Death Note book has just come out is that right. So yeah we'll have a good chance to know where you came out at the end of February. So but I'm kind of poverty I've been getting letters already. Oh yes oh yes. Well actually I think of all my boxes in terms of one long book and you just take different aspects of the theme. Yes exact for except for transformations which is

what's the word. Well it's I take Grimm's fairy tales and transform them in some strange Sexton when I did a satire. I guess I would set some of them a serious and just been made into an opera of the Minneapolis opera company did it. I think it's going to travel and I was got very good reviews well enough of them want to go on stage. A year ago and then they repeated it again this year versus years and then I don't know where. What is the music my age but I am glad I know what is the music used in the opera they commissioned but is it right Music Is it sharp contemporary.

Well it's very different I mean sometimes there's a tango. I mean why the man and the opening of the first night when I was there said to their wives Well if you take me to more operas like that I mean because the way I was sitting there laughing at my own jokes and you know when I wrote this I didn't think I was writing jokes. I was just writing what came out of my own. I didn't I did it didn't occur to me I was writing jokes like I wanted it to stop me. I think I mean jobs I don't know jokes anywhere but the humorous but humorous there but I wasn't I wasn't too aware of that I I didn't think about it. I I blocked it. But I'd like to read one which is not familiar and rather bored today. Let's do it. Kind of as someone said Char Siri and I thought oh no I said something nice to go back to trust but I'd like to say before I began that there's a word in it that I love to say I

liked it I might as well get my kicks you know are sly Now here are a lot of other attacks and a Southern writer asked me letter what does that word mean. Well-known writer and I said you didn't know. He said I didn't know you know his southern accent which I can't know about him but I said you didn't know. We said no. So I thought well I've got to go along with the copy writer who wrote on the gallows. All for a you call just where they do it you know. What does dingo sweet mean. And I write Dear copywriter you see a very informal and I have no copyright or copyright or dingo sweet image for sexual intercourse and this other one of the song always said wow why why I didn't

get it. Goodness may not be enough. Yes as ever I really don't see how he could have missed it. But Alan whetted our appetite. Now let me let me just explain that in these stories and I will tell you when the when the story begins I give a kind of prologue my own associations my own kind of song. You might say in this case and then I'll tell you when the story itself again. The little pears and oh the women grip and Strach fainting on the horn. The men and women cry to each other touch me and make me and the last like many of us the parson and the miller's wife. The women cry Come my fox heal me.

I am choked wife with middle aged so when me threadbare wear me down wear me out like me clean as clean as a now and then I come my lady my friend G queen my gaudy dear soul to me a bird in be its news. Bounce me off like a shuttlecock Dance me to ye ye for I am your lives your life. Beginning of a story. Long ago there was a peasant who was poor but quite often he was not yet a voyeur. He had yet to find the miller's wife after a game we had not enough cabbage for supper or no clover for as one. So we slaughter the cow and took the skin. It was worth no

more than a dead flower. But he hoped for profit on his way he came upon a Raven with a damaged wing. It lay as crumbled as a wet wash cloth of he said. Come little fellow you are a part of my boot. On his way there was a fierce storm hail jab the little peasants cheeks like toothpicks. So he sought shelter at the miller's house. The miller's wife gave him only a hunk of stale bread and let him lie down under the straw. The peasant wrapped himself and the raven up in the cow. I tend to fall asleep. When you say as still as a hostage the miller's wife fled in the parson's saying

My husband is out so we shall have a feast. Roast me he'd sell a keg said one on the parcel in his eyes as a black guy's caviar. Come my lady my friend queen the miller's wife. Her lips is red amende said. Touch me my pen gag and wake me up. And thus they ate and thus he. Was the. Then the middle of us heard stomping on the doorstep and the miller's wife hid the food about the House and the parcel in the cupboard. The miller asked upon entering. What is that dead cow doing in the corner. The peasant spoke it is me.

I sought shelter from the storm. You're welcome said the Miller but my stomach is as empty as a flour sack. His wife told him she had no food but bread and cheese. So be it. The Miller said. And the three of them ate the Miller looked once more at the cow skin and asked its purpose. The present day answered. I had my soothsayer in it. He knows fine things about you. But the fair fee keeps to herself. The peasant pinched the ravens head and I croaked. Or her or. That means translated the bears and there is wine under the pillow. And there it sat as warm as this. That's the man.

Or. Or they found the roast meat under the stove it lay there like an old dog or her or they found the salad in the bag and the cakes under red curry occur because of all this the mill a burned you know the fifth thing. How much she asked little caring he was being milked. They settled on a large saw and the soothsayer said the devil is in the cupboard. And the miller locked it. Her her there stood the parson rigid for a moment as real as a soup can. And then he took off like a fire with the wind at its back. I have a trick the downfall cried the Miller

with delight and I had tweaked is gin my skirt I will be as brave as that gag. The miller's wife smiled to herself though never again to leave her sequinned was as safe as a flaw. And I was the strong little has and drove home the next morning. I'll soon say are over a shoulder and gold pieces knocking like marbles in his deep pants pocket or. Her. That's one thing that must be an audience favorite. Well what was the reaction. There's a lot of laughter and I like the way you say it. I don't I'm not saying it that way now but.

I like to I guess I like to say it that way I get I don't know you're OK with you says Mike. And there is one I guess because I made it up. You know and like to savor it and I like to just kind of how many other Grimms tales were used in this book 13 13 No 13 and I think I'm not sure if it says here. 17 How did you decide which 113 for the opera. Did you have to do a lot of research on how well no no I didn't really I opened I had read Graham's fairy tales since I could read and so would my daughter and I continued until I was about 13 while other people were my my contemporaries are reading the Ask a I'm reading Grimms fairy tale and so I would be.

It was a kind of obsession. And my daughter adored them I gave gave her and she was the one we were remembered more of them. She'd say she was I want to point out the present but it's not quite there I mean but it's there I mean they're they're reading anyway and they're hiding in the cupboard and it's interesting how you look at a book in a different way depending on your age you know thinking about Gulliver's Travels and I was talking to somebody about this the other day who said that he remembers his attitude and feelings when he first read Moby Dick how his attitude changed. The older he got in relation to Moby Dick. How often do you have time to do any reading. You probably don't. Oh I believe I believe. Oh yes I read a lot of fiction as well as poetry. Are you going to be teaching the summer. Well I'm off. No actually I'm going to have I think a small class in my house.

The reason I'm not going to teach is some university is that then I'm stuck. If I want to go away for a week you know you know very committed to the classroom. I am stuck if my university but if I'm home I can say look I'm going to be in the next week. Weren't you I didn't receive a travelling fellowship Bosun and a couple of years ago to go to London. Do you teach among them. No what is the thing that was a world poetry festival that I went to. But I've received many traveling fellowships and he received for foundation award to do that was to write a plight which I did when they asked me are nominated. And I said I really do. What are you going to do when you know I said I can only tell you one thing I'll write a Bloody Mary brochure right. How long did it take you to is that the plane took a year. I mean it was hard work. Maybe more than a year you know and then when of course it was

produced it took God another. I'm out of time. How does the Minneapolis Opera have to make one of your poems. How did that come about. They just did it. It had nothing to do with me and it was beautiful because I didn't ever say that where I was that was or anything I'd had nothing to do with it. And I gave up on me and I thought you know while all right that will be beautiful but I don't know really. And then he was this huge surprise that was beautiful beautifully directed. And there was the full production and there was just the whole production and and it was marvelously acted and song and the music. And that's a large and they were up there were no there were eight on their way but they they interchange. How long is it it's an hour two hours. I don't know. I mean I'll tell you what it is and I'd like to see it. No actually two friends of mine said you should go out I want to pop it a little bit

and they would be very and I'm going just things we do want to get I would want a cigarette as an intermission you know.