Laura Jensen's Poetry

Kevin Prufer is reminding us of several neglected poets over at Good Times.

First up in his list is Laura Jensen, an amazingly interesting, wildly original poet, whose three books demand republication. One, Memory, has been reissued this year by Carnegie Mellon.

Bad Boats (ECCO, 1977), a book everyone should have, is still, apparently available from several used bookstores. You can find it through amazon.com.

Here’s a poem from Bad Boats, which shows, along with the title poem Prufer quotes, some of her unique power. As Mark Strand wrote, from the back cover, "[Jensen's poems] are charged with an eerie energy that compels our attention continuously."


The Red Dog


You know that he is going to die
as soon as I tell you
he is standing beside me
his hair in spikes and dripping
from his body. He turns his head.
Canadian geese
all of them floating along the shore.
The red dog is swimming for them
only his head shows now
they flap into a curve and move
farther along the bay.
You know that he is going to die
this is the time for it
while there is a way to vanish
while the geese are moving off
to be their hard sounds
as their bodies leave the water.