In our September 2011 issue’s Books in Brief, Andrea Miller included what she says are “three new treasures for poetry lovers.” One of these is the new collection, Yoga Heart: Lines on the Six Perfections, by Leza Lowitz.
It’s nice to be able to share a treasure, so here are two poems — “On Modesty” and “Gravy” — from Yoga Heart.
On Modesty
He called himself the farmer of Katsushika,
and thirty other names, moving ninety-three times,
following the movement of seas, waterfalls, islands, the
moon.
His father was a mirror polisher for the Shogun.
He captured Mt. Fuji from every perspective,
his eye like a fox, like a camera.
He wanted to live to ninety, but after making thirty
thousand prints,
Hokusai died at eighty-nine, saying:
If heaven gives me even five more years, I shall
surely become a great artist..
Gravy
When Ray Carver died
from a brain tumor caused by lung cancer —
having escaped death by alcohol a decade earlier —
his wife found a scrap of paper on his desk
near his typewriter.Forgive me if I’m thrilled with the idea,
but just now I thought that every poem I write
ought to be called Happiness.No heroics. No apologies.
Just every day. Happiness.
Near the end of his life he wrote:
It was gravy. All gravy.Let yourself say:
“Every poem will be called happiness.”
“Every day will be devoted to helping others be happy.”
.
Poetry by Leza Lowitz, from her book Yoga Heart. Published here with permission of Stone Bridge Press.