Trying to Surprise God

Trying to SURPRISE God

Peter Meinke

University of Pittsburgh Press

Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15260

Copyright © 1981, Peter Meinke

All rights reserved

Feffer and Simons, Inc., London

Manufactured in the United States of America

Second printing 1985

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Meinke, Peter.

    Trying to surprise God.

    (Pitt poetry series)

    I.    Title.

PS3563.E348T78             811′.54             80-54062

ISBN  0-8229-3434-5

ISBN  0-8229-5326-9 (pbk.)

Acknowledgment is made to the following publications, which first published some of the poems in this book: CCL Newsletter, Cosmopolitan, Crux, The Devil’s Millhopper, The Educational Forum, The Florida Review, Ladies’ Home Journal, Local Muse 2, Michigan Quarterly Review, Motive, New Orleans Review, The New Republic, The New York Quarterly, The Red Clay Reader, Sports Poems, and Yankee.

Advice to My Son, In Gentler Times, Portrait: White on White, and The Death of the Pilot Whales first appeared in The Antioch Review, copyright 1965, 1966, 1967, and 1968 by The Antioch Review, Inc., and are reprinted by permission of the editor. Preacher, Said the General, is reprinted by permission from the March 27, 1968, issue of The Christian Century, copyright 1968, Christian Century Foundation. Elephant Tusks, The Artist, and Azaleas were originally published in the December 1978 issue of Poetry.

The author wishes to thank the Florida Council of Fine Arts for a creative writing fellowship, during which some of these poems were written.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8229-7893-0 (electronic)

The publication of this book is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, D.C., a Federal agency, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

for my Mother and Father

CONTENTS

Supermarket

I. Trout

Trout

Robert Frost in Warsaw

A Blessing

The Ladies Who Shovel the Snow

Letter from Warsaw

II. Azaleas

Azaleas

Ping-pong

Voyage

Teacups

Happy Hour

Portrait: White on White

A Necessary Bucket

Preacher, Said the General

Elephant Tusks

World Within World

The Death of the Pilot Whales

III. Lines from Key West

I. Hero Worship at Key West on the 4th of July

II. Writing the Great American Poem in Key West

III. Playing Shuffleboard, Drunk, in Key West, Fla.

IV. Responding to Criticism in Key West

V. Looking for Something to Fear in Key West, Fla.

VI. Trying to Have an Affair in Key West

VII. Asherah: Sailing Around Key West

VIII. Wishing He Had a Theory in Key West

IX. Studying Polish in Order to Answer the Question What Are You Doing in Key West?

X. The Angel of Death Hovers Over Key West

XI. The Angel Laughed Out Loud in Key West, Fla.

IV. Trying to Surprise God

The Poet, Trying to Surprise God

The Hunters: Southeast Africa

The Snake Magician, Nigeria

In Gentler Times

Sonnet on the Death of the Man Who Invented Plastic Roses

Sonnet to a Latin Professor

Candles

Mendel’s Laws

V. The Laughter of Dead Poets

Biography

Myrtle the Turtle

The Laughter of Dead Poets

Greta Garbo Poem #41

To an Athlete Turned Poet

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