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A Momentary Glory
WESLEYAN POETRY
ALSO BY HARVEY SHAPIRO
The Eye, 1953
Mountain, Fire, Thornbush, 1961
Battle Report, 1966
This World, 1971
Lauds & Nightsounds, 1978
The Light Holds, 1984
National Cold Storage Company, 1988
A Day’s Portion, 1994
Selected Poems, 1997
How Charlie Shavers Died and Other Poems, 2001
Poets of World War II (editor), 2003
The Sights Along the Harbor: New and Collected Poems, 2006
HARVEY SHAPIRO
A Momentary Glory
LAST POEMS
Edited by
Norman Finkelstein
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
Middletown CT 06459
© 2014 Estate of Harvey Shapiro
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed and typeset in Albertina and
Calluna Sans by Eric M. Brooks
Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Shapiro, Harvey, 1924–2013.
[Poems. Selections]
A momentary glory: last poems / Harvey Shapiro;
edited by Norman Finkelstein.
pages; cm. — (Wesleyan poetry series)
ISBN 978-0-8195-7489-3 (cloth: alk. paper) —
ISBN 978-0-8195-7495-4 (ebook)
I. Finkelstein, Norman, 1954– II. Title.
PS3537.H264A62014
811'.52 — dc232014003076
5 4 3 2 1
Cover photograph: An empty cobblestone street in DUMBO leads to the Brooklyn Bridge in vertical perspective, © Greg Kushmerek. Shutterstock image 29093497.
CONTENTS
The Old Man Has One Thought and Then Another 1
For William Carlos Williams 4
Reznikoff 5
Oppen 6
“It may have been …” 7
“When I asked Wallace Stevens …” 8
The People’s Poet 9
On a Rejection Note from Paul Muldoon 10
Homage 11
Lines (1) 12
Now I Write 13
On My Book 14
Writing 15
“I wrote two poems in my sleep …” 16
The Poem 17
During the Second World War 18
Memorial Day 19
An American Life 20
Discourse on Education 21
Foggia, Italy 22
The Old War 23
Song 25
The Transaction 26
Alexandra 27
Lydia 28
Cynthia 29
King Kong’s Wong 30
Nightpiece 31
“Drear, bleared and boiled …” 32
A Story 33
Brief Lives 34
Brooklyn 35
To the Brooklyn Academy of Music 36
Lines (2) 37
7th Avenue IRT 38
Times Square 39
In the City 40
Praise For 41
The Keys 42
Key West 43
Florida
