Mary Jo Bang

Mary Jo Bang Poems

Fragile like a child is fragile.
Destined not to be forever.
...

The role of elegy is
To put a death mask on tragedy,
...

The aqua green goes with the pink
in a way no one knows what will happen.
...

At a book of details
Of all the moments when knowledge is acquired.
...

The rhinestone lights blink off and on.
Pretend stars.
...

What is desire
But the hardwire argument given
...

A personal lens: glass bending rays
That gave one that day's news
...

Now we sit and play with a tiny toy
elephant that travels a taut string.
Now we are used and use in turn
each other. Our hats unravel
...

Mary Jo Bang Biography

Mary Jo Bang (born October 22, 1946 in Waynesville, Missouri) is an American poet. She grew up in Ferguson, Missouri. She graduated from Northwestern University, in sociology, from the Polytechnic of Central London, and from Columbia University, with an M.F.A. She teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. Her work has appeared in New American Writing, Paris Review, The New Yorker,The New Republic, Denver Quarterly and Harvard Review. Bang was the poetry co-editor of the Boston Review from 1995 to 2005. She was a judge for the 2004 James Laughlin Award. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri. Awards and recognitions: Publishers Weekly; "2007 Best Books of the Year" St. Louis Post-Dispatch; "Most Recommended" National Book Critics Circle[disambiguation needed], December 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award, 2007 Washington University Faculty Research Grant, Summer 2007 Bellagio Foundation Fellowship 2007 Finalist, Anna Akhmatova Award 2006 Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award 2005 (Fannie Howe, Judge) & 2002 (Brenda Hillman, Judge) Bogliosco Foundation Fellowship 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship 2004 Pushcart Prize 2003 "Louise in Love" listed in: "Notable Books in 2001" National Book Critics Circle; "Best Books of 2001" St. Louis Post-Dispatch University of Georgia’s Contemporary Poets Series Competition 2000 (Mark Strand, Judge) Hodder Fellowship, Princeton University 1999-2000 Chateau Lavigny Fellowship 1999 Great Lakes Colleges Association New Writer's Award 1998 Yaddo Fellowship 1998 "Apology for Want" listed in “Notable Books in 1997” by the National Book Critics Circle Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Fellowship, 1997 Katharine Bakeless Nason Publication Prize 1996 (Edward Hirsh, Judge) MacDowell Colony Fellowship, 1996 "Discovery" The Nation Poetry Award 1995 Honorable Mention, Academy of American Poets Poetry Competition, 1995 (Robert Pinsky, Judge) Columbia University School of the Arts Dean's Award, 1994)

The Best Poem Of Mary Jo Bang

You Were You Are Elegy

Fragile like a child is fragile.
Destined not to be forever.
Destined to become other
To mother. Here I am
Sitting on a chair, thinking
About you. Thinking
About how it was
To talk to you.
How sometimes it was wonderful
And sometimes it was awful.
How drugs when drugs were
Undid the good almost entirely
But not entirely
Because good could always be seen
Glimmering like lame glimmers
In the window of a shop
Called Beautiful
Things Never Last Forever.
I loved you. I love you. You were.
And you are. Life is experience.
It's all so simple. Experience is
The chair we sit on.
The sitting. The thinking
Of you where you are a blank
To be filled
In by missing. I loved you.
I love you like I love
All beautiful things.
True beauty is truly seldom.
You were. You are
In May. May now is looking onto
The June that is coming up.
This is how I measure
The year. Everything Was My Fault
Has been the theme of the song
I've been singing,
Even when you've told me to quiet.
I haven't been quiet.
I've been crying. I think you
Have forgiven me. You keep
Putting your hand on my shoulder
When I'm crying.
Thank you for that. And
For the ineffable sense
Of continuance. You were. You are
The brightest thing in the shop window
And the most beautiful seldom I ever saw.

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