Now that I’ve started a thread in the Pit about my least favorite “poet,” the idiotic Mina Loy, I thought I should ask if there were any fans of my favorite poet, Clark Ashton Smith.
I really prefer his nature poems - I think he was ingenious at capturing the feel of specific outdoor environments, and although the words are sparse, my mind immediately brings up really vivid locations. The title is also frequently as important as the verses themselves, often serving as its own verse introducing the scene to be described. For example:
Abandoned Plum Orchard
Lichen, mistletoe, aloft
In the dying croft,
Leaf the winter trees.
Basin in Boulder
In the boulder’s top
The time-hollowed basin
Fills with rain, drop by drop.
The Last Apricot
When I came to pluck it,
Fallen, splashed in rot
Was the last apricot.
Garden of Priapus
With lowered lids, you nod:
Somewhere in the garden
Lurks the garden-god.
A lot of his poems are quite bawdy:
Under the spreading mulberry tree
When the purple fruit was falling free,
I got horny and had some nooky
With my hot cooky
And she had some with me.
I mean, who else writes this stuff?!?!
He also has a lot of weird, dark, mystical works, usually much longer than these, and while I can appreciate them, I really like these evocative nature poems more.