It’s August and I have not
Read a book in six months
except something called The Retreat from Moscow
by Caulaincourt
Nevertheless, I am happy
Riding in a car with my brother
and drinking from a pint of Old Crow.
We do not have any place in mind to go,
we are just driving.
If I closed my eyes for a minute
I would be lost, yet
I could gladly lie down and sleep forever
beside this road
My brother nudges me.
Any minute now, something will happen.
I love this poem. It speaks to me.
This poem is very intresting and it makes you feel if you dinrk and drive you could be that hurt person for doing nothing wrong
while i agree with Jockstrap that Carver may not be the most intellectually challenging of writers or include much challenging philosophies as such, it is important to note that this is not what contemporary American prose/poetry is about. It is about simple thought with deep meaning. The story and the meaning of the story are one and the same. Even if we look back to the beat writers of the 50’s and 60’s we can find the deepeset of meanings in the simplest of stories
To Jock Strap,
I’m sure you would “blow Raymond Carver away” with the thoughts in your head. It sounds like you are a deep thinker. A real renaissance man. Indeed, Kurt Cobain would fit that category too. What a philosopher! You both are two of the finest poetic minds that the world has to offer. How do you not get more respect? I say it’s bullshit. You should be an award winning novelist/poet/songwriter. You should get all the chicks. You are clearly a winner in life. You deserve it. Because you are such an outstanding intellect.
Seriously. Get off Carver’s nuts.
I would blow this guy away with the thoughts in my head. I can’t beleive this guys famous and not me. Somewhere, Kurt Cobain is laughing at these poems. If u want to publish somthing good email me Carver… we’ll talk.
drinking and driving
saturday it’s cold
someone will pay
someone will pay for where she lay
she lay in the darkness
she lay in the cold
where someday she will lie
millions of days old
not here to spend time with me
not here to laugh and cry
somebody is now asking themself
why why does she lie
she lies in this darkness
she lies in this cold
because she wan’t reminded
nor was she told
not to drink and drive
or here she would lie
in this darkness in this cold
lying without me
eventually millions of days old
she would lie here by herself
with only comfort from me
now you see why
you don’t drink and drive
or here you’ll be
Adrienne is right on the money. Tommy, you must look deeper.
Please look beyond your predjudice to the obvious connotation of the title, and what it may imply… if you truly take into account the image that is being conjured, you could actually find something quite beautiful. Even the word “nevertheless”… think about it… “contrary” to the world around us, “contrary” to whatever shortcomings we perceive, the character perceives, he is relishing in the moment. I believe that, more than anything, Carver is making reference to the freedom of living in the moment, despite what tomorrow might bring. Quite lovely, with silence in a certain chaos, if you ask me..
This is the last thing the world needs – a depressing reminder of nihilism and emptiness. This poem is without the descriptive beauty and force of RC’s short stories, which provide in their truth and economy their own answers and give a sense of the soul of the characters involved.