Ode to Spring

- Frederick Seidel

I can only find words for.
And sometimes I can't.
Here are these flowers that stand for.
I stand here on the sidewalk.

I can't stand it, but yes of course I understand it.
Everything has to have meaning.
Things have to stand for something.
I can't take the time. Even skin-deep is too deep.

I say to the flower stand man:
Beautiful flowers at your flower stand, man.
I'll take a dozen of the lilies.
I'm standing as it were on my knees

Before a little man up on a raised
Runway altar where his flowers are arrayed
Along the outside of the shop.
I take my flames and pay inside.

I go off and have sexual intercourse.
The woman is the woman I love.
The room displays thirteen lilies.
I stand on the surface.


from: Poems 1959-2009. Copyright 2009.

Possibilities And Associations

I just read a brief essay on the poetry of Frederick Seidel, and was intrigued. Not owning any, myself, I looked him up online and found the poem excerpted below.

It seems there is a great deal of controversy surrounding both the man and his poetry. Most of it is hinted at, no great detail.

Imagine my surprise also when, along with the pros and cons listed in the essay, I found a strong penchant for word play - after my own heart, as my grandmother would say.

After researching this post, I can't say Seidel will ever rank among my favorites. But I do have soft spot for word play.

For our students it's a way to explore alternative possibilities and associations - to exercise their Language Arts muscles, if you will. I love watching them learn when they think they're not actually working.

from Ode to Spring
by Frederick Seidel

I can only find words for.
And sometimes I can't.
Here are these flowers that stand for.
I stand here on the sidewalk.

I can't stand it, but yes of course I understand it.
Everything has to have meaning.
Things have to stand for something.
I can't take the time. Even skin-deep is too deep.

I say to the flower stand man:
Beautiful flowers at your flower stand, man.
I'll take a dozen of the lilies.
I'm standing as it were on my knees

Laureate of the Louche
The Edge of Night
Books by Frederick Seidel
Searching for an elusive poet in his works
With Mercy for the Greedy