Second Cummings
By: Charles Giuliano - Sep 29, 2019
Second Cummings
A Cummings scholar
Delivered papers
At poetic conferences
Knew the work
From e. to e.
Knowledge vast
As an Enormous Room
All the details
Public and private
Pored over papers
Haunted libraries
Hither and yon
Interviewed everyone
Cabdrivers to haberdashers
Who knew him
No detail too trivial
For that definitive study
Virtual Rosetta Stone
Got tenure along the way
Articles in journals
Small and esoteric
Miniscule circulation
Inner circle of scholars
Making living off him
Cannibals and archeologists
Digging up dirt
Exhuming the whimsy
Filtered through deconstruction
What the words meant
Their true intent
Sipping afternoon tea
Lapsang Souchong
Rich and aromatic
Reminded me of Pound
Isn’t that profound
If not then T. S.
Student office hours
Dinner at the faculty club
Penguins parading medals
All at his expense
Feasting on genius
Cannibal soup
I heard him once
Reading at Boston College
Made no sense but
Loved the words
Their quirky cadence
Rushing over me
In fits and starts
So herky jerky
Like hipster bop
Torrents of jive
Maid of the Mist
Under the Falls
When I was young
And he was still alive