Midnight Poetry: “La Femme, La Vie, La Joie”
La Femme, La Vie, La Joie
(Trish Stewart)
At the dawn of equal,
she sat at That Table,
La Femme—
the only in Vicious Circle.
The wit aimed to tease,
to blame
and she did
La Vie—
for Sweet Anguish
with words, none truer;
unsoftened, unsung,
emboldened with grace,
and quick-sharpened tongue.
La Joie—
in truth,
but she named no names.
Algonquin’s goddess.
Word mistress, Ms. Parker.
the woman
the life
and the joy.
(Read more of Trish Stewart’s poetry here)
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AuthorScoop
September 16th, 2008 at 11:43 am
The opening to this is just wonderful. Terrific piece of work and it makes me want to know more about Dorothy Parker.
September 16th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Thanks, Jamie.
And Thanks William for adding me to Midnight Poetry.
Stew21s last blog post..Chapter 8
September 16th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
you’re more than welcome. it’s a lovely poem, and i hope you’ll allow us to post more in the future.
September 16th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
Of course you are allowed to post more in the future. I wasn’t going to do anything else with them anyway. I might recommend that you look to the ones about people: I have a Hemingway, a Whitman, a Daisy Buchanan, an Ophelia, a Pygmallion, a Haskins, and a Mason you might be interested in.
Stew21s last blog post..Chapter 8
September 16th, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Oddly, I never associated Dorothy Parker with joy until you showed me the connection, Trish. I always pictured her as clever and smirking, but inwardly miserable. (Could be on account of the biopic starring Jennifer Jason Leigh.)
The joy, I see, is in truth and in words. Like the note she left on her office door when she left for her honeymoon: “Too f***ing busy… and vice versa.”
What an epitaph.
Can’t read too much of your work, Trish. I’m glad it’s in this august pantheon.
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September 17th, 2008 at 5:30 am
It’s a lovely poem. Thank you.