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Buoyancy and Other Myths
Gut Punch Press 1995 ISBN 0-945144-06-7
"Buoyancy is Richard Peabody's finest
work to date. Whether he is writing about himself, his family,
a lover, or the world at large, he writes with directness and honesty.
His poems balance humor and sadness--he sees the humor in this
ridiculous world, but it's often tinged with sadness that comes
from thinking maybe the world could be a better place if only .
. . "
-- Jim Daniels
As Bees in Honey Drown
There's still honey in your voice
when you answer her unpredictable
late night phonecalls.
A sympathetic counterpoint
to her breathy whispers.
She has always been able
to make you quiver.
And don't think
your new lover
hasn't noticed.
If a voice could give life
perhaps this is the wavelength
it might choose.
Burnished sweet as clover honey
--the split-second hesitation
before sliding over the lip
of the jar--folding back onto
itself in golden ribbons.
The Other Man is Always French
The other woman can be
a blonde or a redhead
but the other man
is always French.
He dresses better
than I ever will.
He can picnic
and stroll
with a wineglass
in one upraised hand.
Munch pate,
drink espresso,
and tempt with
ashy kisses.
He hangs out
at Dupont Circle
becuase the trees
remind him of Paris.
Did I mention sex?
Face it--
he's had centuries
of practice.
I'm an American.
What do I know?
He drives a fast car,
and can brood like
nobody's business,
while I sit home
watching ESPN.
He's tall and
chats about art--
I don't even want
to dicuss that accent.
My fantasy is to call
the State Department
and have him deported.
Only he'll probably
convince you to marry him
for a green card.
No way I'm going to win--
the other man is
always more aggressive,
always more attentive.
The other man
is just too French
for words.
From now on
I'm going out
with statuesque German women
so next time we run
into each other
they can kick his butt
for me.
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"Richard Peabody takes a hard
look at himself and the contemporary world and comes up with poems
alternately funny, sad, and tender. These poems remember childhood
and sing of love--both lost and requited. Buoyancy has charm
and insight in equal parts."
-- Miriam Sagan
In his fourth full-length collection
of poems, Buoyancy and Other Myths, DC native Richard Peabody
writes some of his most revealing and autobiographical material
to date. Topics range from his father's death to the Gulf War,
from the American dream to the death of love. And as he has in
previous volumes, Peabody examines the flotsam and jetsam of pop
culture--from comic book seductress Vampirella to a doll bonfire
that includes Barbie and her ilk. These poems juggle the duality's
of comedy and tragedy, love and hate, gain and loss, life and death,
illusion and reality. Stanzas that critic Tracey O'Shaughnessey
described as "at once angry and loving; foaming with wrath
and quivering with an aching, desperate love." We often laugh
when reading these cyclical poems but are never really sure why
exactly it is that we're laughing. Perhaps, as Hugh Fox has said,
it's because "Peabody is two sensibilities in one starved
frame: PopSchlockist and Meistersinger." Consider this book
then, an attempt to keep the spirit afloat in a physical world
of pain and disappointment. |
