Friday, June 12, 2009

Poetry Friday: Dylan Thomas


In April, I went to the Antiquarian Book Fair here in New York. I love going to this event. The books are beautiful, old, and lavish. MoCCA is Bizarro Antiquarian Book Fair, in fact.

At Ursus Rare Books I spent too long leaning over the glass counter reading a tight-packed letter from Dylan Thomas. There is nothing like a letter from a genius in his own hand. He doesn't count this as his own poetry; it was something sung -- over and over -- by his then-mistresss, Wyn Henderson, whom he described as "not quite my cup of night custard." Maybe it's not up to the standards of "Do not go gentle into that good night," but it sure counts for Poetry Friday.

There was a bloody sparrow
Flew up a bloody spout
Came up a bloody thunderstorm
And blew the bugger out.

-- As recorded by Dylan Thomas, April, 1936

2 comments:

Rick Daley said...

It's still a fun verse, thanks for sharing.

Haste yee back ;-) said...

Sounds suspiciously like... "The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout, down came the rain and washed the spider out"....

Hmmm... wonder who was there first?

Haste yee back ;-)