我是詩人

y name’s Emily Moore， and I’m a poet. Among other things， I’m also a classroom teacher. I teach high school English. I think one of the things that I love about poetry—and that maybe all writers of poems love—is that there’s a message-in-a-bottle quality to poems. We love， as writers， to imagine readers discovering the right poem at the right time.

So when I was younger， I used to copy down poems. One poem that I copied， and I eventually put up on my wall， you know， my dorm room wall， was by Jody Gladding. It was this totally 1）obscure poem called 2）Locust Shell. Fast forward maybe five years later， I was a teacher in New York. A man who then was older than me—now I think he was probably about 30—came and was observing classes at my school， and he observed my class.

And after class， he said， “Oh， you teach poetry， you know， what poets do you like？”And I 3）randomly said， “Oh， you know， I’m obsessed with this poem called Locust Shell， by Jody Gladding， but no one knows who she is.” And he said， “Oh， that’s my sister.”

There’s a charming way that poems travel， so I hope that things I write sort of， you know， go out into this funny world. When I’m not writing or teaching poetry， I’m in a band. Actually， one of my college mentors was the writer Paul Muldoon， and he has a band called The 4）Racket. And I， too， perhaps secretly because of his influence—I’m in an allgirl， country camp 5）trio called 6）Ménage à Twang. We sing silly songs about love and real estate in New York City. So it’s a use of my rhyming and poetic skills.

So this poem is called Crazy Right Now， and the title is from the wonderful 7）Beyoncé.

（Reading） Crazy Right Now.

How six months later，

Nick called Anne in tears at 6：00 a.m.

from rain smeared Chelsea Streets with Elliot long gone.

And Anne raved at the 8）Cineplex

when Megan took some space.

And Meg’s mom tore off all her clothes

and walked into the yard the night her husband left.

And I ran hard through freezing rain in just a sweatshirt

when Jenn left me for her ex.

The 9）asphalt slick， wet hair streaking my face

when Carter pulled me to his chest

so close I couldn’t breathe.

Said let’s get you a drink

and led me towards a basement bar

then flipped his way through plastic 10）jukebox sleeves.

So many loves；

so many griefs.

我叫艾米麗·摩爾，是一名詩人。此外，我還是一名學校老師，在中學里教英語。我熱愛詩歌其中一個原因——也許這正是所有寫詩的人都喜歡的一點，那就是詩歌帶有“瓶中信”的特質。作為詩人，我們喜歡想象讀者讀到恰逢其時的詩歌的情形。

我在小時候總會抄寫詩歌。在我抄過的詩當中，有那么一首，最后我還將它貼到了墻壁上，你知道嗎，就在我宿舍的墻上。這首詩的作者是喬迪·格拉丁，那是一首相當晦澀難懂的作品，名叫《蝗蟲殼兒》。一眨眼將近五年過去了，我后來在紐約教書。一次，有位年長的男士——現在想來，他當時約摸三十歲吧；他來到我們學校觀摩教學，旁聽了我的一堂課。

下課以后，他問道：“哦，你是教詩歌的啊，那你喜歡誰的詩呢？”我隨口回答：“噢，你知道嗎，我迷上了一首名叫《蝗蟲殼兒》的詩，作者叫喬迪·格拉丁，不過沒有人聽說過她的名字。”那位男士隨即說：“喔，那是我姐姐。”

這正是詩歌穿越時空的魅力所在，因此我也希望自己的作品能夠在這個有趣的世界廣為傳播。在不寫詩或者不教書的時候，我就去玩樂隊。事實上，我的其中一位大學導師正是作家保羅·馬爾登，他組建了一支名叫“拉凱特管組合”的樂隊。也許是暗地里受到他的影響吧，我也加入了一個女子野營三人組合，取名“三角弦音”。我們在紐約城里唱了不少關于戀愛與房產的傻氣小曲，這也讓我一展押韻與詩歌技巧。

以下這首詩名叫《此刻瘋狂》，詩名靈感來自出色的歌手碧昂絲。……