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Millay
by Ken HarnischAuburn headed spirit, how you still delight!
How your free ways caused such holes
To form in the shocked and holy mouths of those
Who kept their improprieties stored
On cool, dark Edwardian shelves
Like their honey and their jam!
And oh what a woman
Who dared love as brazenly as men do still
And for that, still are praised as gods.
Yes, you must have smiled, to be called a whore
While men, more indiscriminate,
Were thought victims of the shrew
And oh, those poor, poor boys
To be twisted so in the wenchs knots
And then to pine away, and write as beautifully
As any schoolgirl how they loved, they loved you so!
Ah, you bawdy succubus, how you must have loved
Their wretchedness, and though you fell too,
Still so many more did fall for you.
I sometimes wish I had known you then
More than merely read your living words
But absent being there with you
Your lovely words will have to do 01/21/2003 Posted on 01/21/2003
Copyright © 2025 Ken Harnisch
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Melissa Arel on 01/21/03 at 08:56 PM LoL.. omG.. I remember this poem when you let me pre-read it last week and the 1st thing I said to you was "I think you are in love with Edna!" Remember? :) I do not think that you are trying to say women are less than men or that they are not equals.. what I KNOW you were doing with this poem is telling the story of Edna St. Vincent-Millay who was a pioneer for her time - Witty and unafraid.. So, no reading between the lines are necessary - its simply simple to read, and wonderful! |
| Posted by Charles E Minshall on 01/22/03 at 04:06 AM You have made hay with Millay Ken...Good poem...Charlie |
| Posted by Kate Demeree on 01/22/03 at 04:07 AM I pre read this too, happily, gratefuly... and loved it. One thing about poetry it can be read more than one way and what I see as your open admiration and love for Millay giving her credit for daring to live her life, may be taken as something far different by the next reader. Anyway, I am glad you posted this, as you know I loved it. |
| Posted by Chris Sorrenti on 01/22/03 at 06:06 PM Yeowza! Reads (fittingly and yet honorably) as a tribute to that outspoken and witty siren of the NYC Algonquin hotel round table, Dorothy Parker. |
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