Elinor Nauen

For a while I paid people to write my poems for me. Since the going rate was $1, I mostly didn't get very good work. Except for this brilliant poem by Anselm Berrigan. He wrote it but it's my poem & totally worth the buck. Today, the 38th anniversary of the death of his father, the poet Ted Berrigan, is the day to share this, since it's modeled after Ted's "Poets of the Future." 

 

 Girlfriends of the Future

 

Girlfriends of the future —

Remember! 

You didn't marry Johnny Stanton —

I did. 

I don't remember this poem at all. Cliff just sent it to me, saying I wrote it in his kitchen in 1980. It reminds me of when I came up with a scheme to pay people to write my poems for me. I think Wanda Phipps (?) still owes me a poem; or Jocelyn Lieu? I paid someone in advance (a dollar) that they never delivered on. Anselm wrote this brilliant little work, which includes family & poetic lineage:

Girlfriends of the future —
Remember!
You didn’t marry Johnny Stanton —
I did.

But remember, I paid him (I hope I did) so it's MY POEM. He only wrote it. Anyway, here's a poem I wrote all by myself (apparently): Read More