Jamesian
Their relationship consisted
In discussing if it existed.
***
Dear Friends,
I had the privilege of being one of Thom Gunn‘s last students before he passed away. A couple of British journalists called from overseas when it happened, eager to ask me about what that was like.
My vision is of Thom Gunn walking into the classroom, taking the chair in the center of the room, propping his well-worn black leather boots up on the table, crossing his legs, leaning back, unbuttoning and rolling up just one of his sleeves so we could all see the black panther of tattoo roaring beneath the white hairs and loosening skin of his forearm, and waiting for the bunch of ignorant undergraduate students milling about to realize that Thom Gunn was in the room. Sadly, most of them never did.
Towards the end of the quarter, Thom told me I was by far the most “adventurous” writer in his class. Given how he lived and wrote his own life, I am fairly certain that was a compliment — one that I carry with me and aspire to some day live up to.
“Jamesian” is from Gunn’s 1992 collection The Man with Night Sweats.
April is National Poetry Month, and I am celebrating by emailing out my own eclectic selection of one poem per day for the duration of the month. You can always learn more about National Poetry Month or sign up for a more official-like poem-a-day list at www.poets.org, the website of the Academy of American Poets.
Enjoy.
Ellen
Poet Thom Gunn was also featured for Poem-a-Day April 28, 2009.
Poems shorter than haiku were also featured for Poem-a-Day April 20, 2007; Poem-a-Day April 14, 2008; and Poem-a-Day April 2, 2009.