After All

Last Poems

William Matthews

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780544101685
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Poetry
• Index: Literature

A collection from "one of the few contemporary poets who really knew how to make the vernacular sing" ( Library Journal ). In this collection of poems completed shortly before his death, William Matthews seems to be looking his last on all things lovely: music, food and wine, love. In the stunning central poem, "Dire Cure, " which forms a kind of spine to the book, he describes the remarkable implications of the "heroic measures" that saved the life and restored the health of his wife from "a children's cancer (doesn't that possessive break your heart?)." He evokes the death of his favorite jazz musician, Charles Mingus. He speaks of cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, of the past, of history, of joys proposed, but especially, with his characteristic relaxed wit, of language and its quiddities: "My love says I think too damn much and maybe she's right." After All is the final word from this winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, one of the most pensive and delicious of all our poets. "Range[s] widely and brightly from Prague in 1419 to a Caribbean island in 1967 to Martha Mitchell, Finn sheep, and a poetry reading at West Point. A lovely finale." — Library Journal "His poems have an authentic lyricism, taut and inevitable in its music and movement." —Charles Simic, author of The Lunatic: Poems

Contents

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Title Page

Contents

Title

Dedication

Mingus in Shadow

Morningside Heights, July

The Place on the Corner

Rescue

Truffle Pigs

Rocas del Caribe, Isla Mujeres, 1967

Manners

The Shooting

Prescience

Vermin

Memory

Promiscuous

Le Quatre Saisons, Montreal, 1979

No Return

Sooey Generous

Poem Ending with a Line from John Berryman

A Serene Heart at the Movies

Inspiration

Hotel St. Pierre, Paris, 1995

Oxymorons

Dire Cure

Euphemisms

Umbrian Nightfall

Hotel Raphael, Rome, 1987

Finn Sheep

Job Interview

Defenestrations in Prague

Ice Follies

Dog Days

Spent Light

The Cloister

A Poetry Reading at West Point

People Like Us

Frazzle

The Bar at the Andover Inn

Big Tongue

Trees in Harold Baumbach ’s Paintings

Willow, Weep for Me

Bucket’s Got a Hole in It

Thinking About Thinking

Misgivings

Care

First Mariner Books edition 2000

Copyright © 1998 by the Estate of William Matthews

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Matthews, William, 1942–1997.

After all : last poems / William Matthews.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-395-91340-3
ISBN 0-618-05685-8 (pbk.)
I. Title.
PS3563.A855A69 1998
811'.54—dc21 98-22909 CIP

eISBN 978-0-544-10168-5
v3.0818

Some of the poems in this book have appeared in the following publications: ACM (Another Chicago Magazine): Frazzle. The Atlantic Monthly: Dire Cure; No Return; The Shooting. Black Warrior Review: Big Tongue. Brilliant Corners: Mingus in Shadow. Crab Orchard Review: Finn Sheep; Oxymorons; Rescue. Double Take: Morningside Heights, July; A Poetry Reading at West Point; Promiscuous. Five Points: Inspiration; Manners; Hotel St. Pierre, Paris, 1995. The Gettysburg Review: Euphemisms; Mingus in Shadow. Hubbub: People Like Us. Many Mountains Moving: Ice Follies. The Marlboro Review: Trees in Harold Baumbach’s Paintings. The Nation: Rocas del Caribe, Isla Mujeres, 1967; Hotel Raphael, Rome, 1987. New England Review: Prescience. The New Yorker: Bucket’s Got a Hole in It; The Cloister; Truffle Pigs; Vermin. The Ohio Review: The Bar at the Andover Inn; Memory; Dog Days; Willow, Weep for Me. Poetry: The Place on the Corner; A Serene Heart at the Movies; Job Interview; Misgivings. Quarterly West: Sooey Generous. Shenandoah: Le Quatre Saisons, Montreal, 1979. Slate: Care. Solo: Defenestrations in Prague. Third Coast: Thinking About Thinking.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contents
• Title
• Dedication
• Mingus in Shadow
• Morningside Heights, July
• The Place on the Corner
• Rescue
• Truffle Pigs
• Rocas del Caribe, Isla Mujeres, 1967
• Manners
• The Shooting
• Prescience
• Vermin
• Memory
• Promiscuous
• Le Quatre Saisons, Montreal, 1979
• No Return
• Sooey Generous
• Poem Ending with a Line from John Berryman
• A Serene Heart at the Movies
• Inspiration
• Hotel St. Pierre, Paris, 1995
• Oxymorons
• Dire Cure
• Euphemisms
• Umbrian Nightfall
• Hotel Raphael, Rome, 1987
• Finn Sheep
• Job Interview
• Defenestrations in Prague
• Ice Follies
• Dog Days
• Spent Light
• The Cloister
• A Poetry Reading at West Point
• People Like Us
• Frazzle
• The Bar at the Andover Inn
• Big Tongue
• Trees in Harold Baumbach ’s Paintings
• Willow, Weep for Me
• Bucket’s Got a Hole in It
• Thinking About Thinking
• Misgivings
• Care