Anne Sexton reads, 'The Truth the Dead Know '.

The Truth the Dead Know
Written and Read by Anne Sexton.
Slapdash editing by me.

The Poem:

Gone, I say and walk from church,
refusing the stiff procession to the grave,
letting the dead tide alone in the hearse.
It is June. I am tired of being brave.

We drive to the Cape. I cultivate
myself where the sun gutters from the sky,
where the sea swings in like an iron gate
and we touch. In another country people die.

My darling, the wind falls in like stones
from the whitehearted water and when we touch
we enter touch entirely. No ones alone.
Men kill for this, or for as much.

And what of the dead? They lie without shoes
in their stone boats. They are more like stone
than the sea would be if it stopped. They refuse
to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• poetry
• anne sexton

[MrMaldoror666]

I prefer poets who don't have to use their lives to pimp themselves out---they use their talent

[esemoose]

So much like Sylvia Plath, it's beautiful that she acknowledges her.

[quidseeker]

@ebourquetunes That's hot.

[ebourquetunes]

@davemeidinger  Whatever.

[davemeidinger]

Oh Ebourquetunes, what a narcissistic exhibitionist. Read "STFU, Troll" by Better Judgment. It's totally repulsive to read about this poet hater trying to start arguments, openly calling out a person he has never met in front of her spoken word videos while grinding his naked genitals up against his own pre-teen backside while "spooning" in bed with himself. How lovely. Yes, he seems bi-polar and an alcoholic but needs to stop spreading hate to a child molesters, people we don't understand.

[ebourquetunes]

Whatever.



[MrHeslopian]

@ebourquetunes Because she has the right to share her past with the world. Maybe she published the book so we could have a better understanding of her mother. I like learning about artists, but I never pass judgement on them like you did, calling them narcissistic and such, because I don't see it as my place. I didn't know her. Neither did you. You can form opinions based on the accounts of others, but you can't directly attack an artist you never met.

[ebourquetunes]

@MrHeslopian Linda chose to write an explicit 303 page book about Anne's poetry & behavior. If Anne's own daughter wrote vivid details of the incest, etc. for anyone to read then it's "up for grabs". It's in print so anyone, anywhere has the right to read & form an opinion on the topic just as they do with Anne's poetry. If her daughter agreed with your opinion that such behavior should only be judged by "her friends and family" why did she have such details published for all to read?

[MrHeslopian]

@ebourquetunes What does that have to do with her poetry? Maybe she was a terrible person, but the artistic exists outside the private self. Monster or not she was a poet, and her work is all objective observers like you and I have the right to pass judgement on. Leave the rest to her friends and family.

[ebourquetunes]

What a narcissistic exhibitionist. Read "Searching For Mercy Street - My Journey Back to My Mother, Anne Sexton" by her daughter Linda Gray Sexton. It is particularly repulsive to read about Anne stimulating her daughter Linda's privates, openly masturbating in front of her or grinding her naked genitals up againts Linda's pre-teen backside while "spooning" in bed with her. How lovely. Yes, she was bi-polar and an alcoholic but she was also extrodinarliy manipulative and a child molester.