Watermelon Kindness: Poetry

146 Pages·2010·0.51 MB·English

by  David Donnell

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We are plunged into the world of Jack Hodgins
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and the Latin American magic realists. V
— William French, The Globe and Mail I DAVID
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The sum of all the poems is a powerful, wide-ranging personality,
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possibly the most engaging in Canadian poetry right now. O
— Ken Adachi, The Toronto Star N DONNELL
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David Donnell’s poems and stories captivate the reader with their inherent grace
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and beauty . . . after just a few lines, you are enraptured with the language. . . . L
The trick of the writer is to take that leap into art and keep the language L
new and alive. Donnell does that masterfully.
WATERMELON KINDNESS
— The Windsor Star
David Donnell has long established himself as one of
the important voices in Canadian literature. W
— Literature and Language A
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Donnell’s writing is both urbane and urban . . . insightful and inciteful.
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— Judith Fitzgerald, The Globe and Mail R
POEMS
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With more range than any other contemporary poet, Donnell ponders questions of art,
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history, and psychology while reveling in the sensory and all that makes us real. Whether L
exploring the modus operandi of other writers or paralleling the trajectory of a satellite O
with everyday occurrences like lost money, badly ended love affairs, or political disappoint- N
ment, Watermelon Kindnessis the Roman pada, a tough individual loaf approximately the size K
of your hand. Always concerned with what’s most nourishing — why we’re as crazy as we I
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are crazy — it’s forty percent crust, because crust is almost always the best of it.
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DAVID DONNELL is generally acknowledged as a master of
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the conversational intellectual poem. His books of poetry include
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Settlements, winner of the Governor General’s Award; China Blues, winner
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of the City of Toronto Book Award; The Blue Ontario Hemingway Boat Race;
and, most recently, Sometimes a Great Notion. His poetry has been widely
anthologized in Canada and the U.S. He teaches and lives in Toronto.
ISBN 978-1-55022-914-1
ECW Press (cid:129) $16.95
ecwpress.com ECW
TRIM SIZE: 6 x 8.875 inches SPINE SIZE: .466 inches
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WATERMELON KINDNESS
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WATERMELON KINDNESS
DAVID DONNELL
ECW Press
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Copyright © David Donnell, 2010
Published byECW Press
2120Queen Street East, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada m4e 1e2
416.694.3348 / [email protected]
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any process — electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise — without the prior
written permission of the copyright owners and ECW Press.
library and archives canada cataloguing in publication
Donnell, David, 1939-
Watermelon kindness / David Donnell.
Poems.
isbn 978-1-55022-914-1
i. title.
ps8557.o54w38 2010 c811'.54 c2009-905967-3
Editor for the press: Michael Holmes / a misFit book
Cover and text design: Tania Craan
Author photo: John Frederick Eddington
Cover images: Water Melon Slice With Bites © Carole Gomez / iStockphoto
Wood planks on black © Maria Toutoudaki / iStockphoto
Typesetting: Mary Bowness
Printing: Coach House 1 2 3 4 5
This book is set in Centaur mt
The publication of Watermelon Kindnesshas been generously supported
by the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $20.1million in writing and publishing
throughout Canada, by the Ontario Arts Council, by the Government of Ontario through the
Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit, by the OMDC Book Fund, an initiative of the Ontario
Media Development Corporation, and by the Government of Canada through the
Book Publishing Industry Development Program (bpidp).
printed and bound in canada
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This book is for Sidney Crosby, who played so well during the 2010
Vancouver Olympics. We were finalizing the very last pages of
Watermelon Kindnessduring the last weekend of the games. Crosby was all
over the place helping other people against Slovakia, without scoring
the big stat himself. Then, tied up 2–2 in overtime against the
Americans, he scored. A huge, deliberate goal. A role model. For sure.
Hey, guy, you did it.
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I’m standing by the window where the light is strong
— Leonard Cohen, Tower of Song
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CONTENTS
LIFE STYLES
Mariner 3
At the Café de Kahlua on West St. Clair 4
Iraq 5
Obama’s iPod 6
A Poet in the Kitchen 7
Watermelon Kindness 8
It Was Before Your Time 9
The Truth 10
Life Enthusiasts 11
Breaking Up with Miriam Mulstein 12
Platforms 13
Poems I’ve Thought of Writing 15
Your Effulgence Disorients Me 16
Facing the Streetcars 17
Drunken Horses 19
Scarlett Johansson 20
Watermelon Summer 21
Poetry Reading, Oak Park, Ill. 22
Behold the Lillies of the Field 23
Remember Sean? 25
In/Out 26
Titles 27
It’s Lonely at the Top 28
A Comic Moment Toward the End of a Serious Relationship 29
A Slightly Stoned Descartes 30
Bright Red Numbers on a Digital Morning Clock 31
Grants 32
Lateral Interference in Daily Life 33
I’m Not Walking in Circles 35
She Thinks Zen Is Too Intellectual 37
Ibid. 38