Murphy Writing of Stockton University Presents
This entry is part of Getaway Reads, an e-mail series curated by Kendal Nicole Lambert that features the writing of the Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway faculty.
Mrs. Cavendish and the Dancer
by Stephen Dunn
Mrs. Cavendish desired the man in the fedora
who danced the tarantella without regard
for who might care. All her life she had
a weakness for abandon, and, if the music
stopped, for anyone who could turn
a phrase. The problem was
Mrs. Cavendish wanted it all
to mean something in a world crazed
and splattered with the gook
of apparent significance, and meaning
had an affinity for being elsewhere.
The dancer studied philosophy, she told me,
knew the difference between a sophist
and a sophomore, despite my insistence
that hardly any existed. It seemed everyone
but she knew that sadness awaits the needy.
Mr. Cavendish, too, when he was alive,
was equally naïve, might invite a wolf
in man’s clothing to spend a night
at their house. This was how the missus
mythologized her husband – a man of what
she called honor, no sense of marital danger,
scrupled beyond all scrupulosity.
The tarantella man was gorgeous and oily,
and, let’s forgive her, Mrs. Cavendish
was lonely. His hair slicked back, he didn’t
resemble her deceased in the slightest,
which in the half-light of memory’s belittered
passageways made her ga-ga. And I, as ever,
would cajole and warn, hoping history
and friendship might be on my side.
Mrs. Cavendish, I’d implore, lie down
with this liar if it feels good, but, please,
when he smells most of sweetness, get a grip,
develop a gripe, try to breathe your own air.
© Stephen Dunn. Originally published in Keeper of Limits: The Mrs. Cavendish Poems, 2015, Sarabande.
Sleeping With Ghosts
by Stephen Dunn
The ghosts who’ve resided for years
in those perfectly made beds
in houses you visit overnight
were once just guests like you
or true inhabitants who died
quietly, almost happy, with the lights out.
They are the ghosts who let you sleep,
who speak, if they speak at all,
into the ear closest to the pillow
offer you assurances of dawn
while their vaguely palpable bodies
touch you like a strange wind
looking for a place to rest
beneath the covers.
Those other ghosts, wronged
And forever in league with wrong,
so much has been said about them.
But the ghosts who sleep with you
and let you sleep are the ones
you might have invited to your bed
had you known them proper in time.
They might have believed in the future
even then, and would have let you
leave them easily, knowing somehow
it would come to this, you one day
drifting toward them, without fear,
in a world wholly theirs.
© Stephen Dunn. Published in Local Time by William Morrow in 1986.
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The Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway and Murphy Writing are programs of Stockton University.
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Stephen Dunn is the author of 19 volumes of poetry including his latest chapbook, Keeper of Limits: The Mrs. Cavendish Poems, published in 2015, by Sarabande. His previous books include Different Hours, which was awarded the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Lines of Defense (2014) and Here and Now (2011), all from W.W. Norton. Stephen has received awards and fellowships from American Academy of Arts and Letters, The Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, New Jersey State Council on the Arts, Poetry Magazine, Poetry Northwest, Mid-American Review and many others. A new and expanded edition of his book of essays, Walking Light, was published in 2001. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing at Stockton University, but spends most of his time in Frostburg, Maryland, with his wife, the writer Barbara Hurd. You can watch this video of Stephen giving a reading or read a few of his poems.
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Want to study with Stephen Dunn? Stephen will be leading three special Advanced Poetry Writing sessions at the 2016 Winter Poetry & Prose Getaway.
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Our Participants Say It Best
“A poem that I wrote at the Getaway a mere two weeks ago has just been accepted by Gargoyle, a Virginia journal. I only submitted it on Sunday and the editor, Richard Peabody, took it right away. I listened very carefully to Stephen Dunn’s suggestions during the workshop, and spent time working on the revision. I’ve had several other Getaway poems published, but this is the soonest after a Getaway! I can’t tell you how much this good news has uplifted my spirits!”
~ Shirley, Baltimore, MD
Our Philosophy
Escape the distractions of your busy life. Advance your craft and energize your writing with a challenging and supportive Writing Getaway. Join us at one of our upcoming writing retreats and take advantage of plentiful writing time, insightful feedback, good meals and good company. Get Away to Write.
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