"Last Rites" by Ernest Hilbert

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-Ernest Hilbert! 

-Robinson revisited 

-Sorry Matthew, it looks like I actually have the more controversial podcast. 

-You can listen to the Comedy Central Roast of Versecraft here. 

-The paradox of relativism

-How (evaluative) Lit Crit works 

-Ernest's Heavy Metal poem 

-Buy Ernest's new book here 

-The Hilbertian sonnet

-A New Formalist style 

-The horror of logistics

-Late Summertime Blues

-The Myth of Icarus

-The Poetics of Grammar

-The blessing and curse of the forbidden fruit

-The last rites of "Last Rites"

-Make lasting memories, then let them go. 

Text of poem:

Last Rites

 

I’ve known beauty almost impossible                                    

to believe, nearly always lost amid                                         

all the usual distractions. Deadlines loom.                 

Taxes come due. Birthdays pass. Debts double.                     

But once a bright and late summer sun filled             

the air, angling astonishingly through a room                        

 

filled with music, some old heart-aching song,                      

and there was my son, not yet two years, coming      

across the floor toward me with arms outspread,                   

his face big with a smile, and he was so strong                      

and new, unworried blue eyes, becoming                               

ever giddier, unbalanced, lunging ahead,                               

 

hoping to fly in that warm light with his father,                     

to hug me as if for very life, and I wished I could                  

stay there always lifting him, laughing, and such                  

light linger as if we’re still together,                           

and I will tell you it hurt it was so good,                                

and I know I’ve had that. I had that much. 

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My favorite poetry podcasts for:
Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
Art by David Anthony Klug

List of the most common metrical feet:
Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)