Outside, nothing moves: only the rainnailing the house up like a coffin.Remember, in childhood, when it rained?Then, the whole world sailed down the alley:leaves, paper, old shoes, the buildings,everything like a circus going to sea.Now, the rain, the iron rain, with its little keysis closing all the doors . . .and I think we’re all dead. See how the skysits like a tombstone on the roofs.
Rainy Day
Bert Meyers
Feature Date
- June 30, 2023
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“Rainy Day” from Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master: by Bert Meyers.
Published by Pleiades Press on April 15, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 by Bert Meyers.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Bert Meyers was a self-taught lyric poet, picture framer, gilder, teacher, and rebel. He was born in Los Angeles in 1928 and died in 1979. Six books of his poetry were published in his lifetime and three posthumously. The most recent book is the upcoming “Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master” to be published in the Spring of 2023 by Pleiades Press.
The website bertmeyers.com has more information on him with a selection of his poetry, essays about him, audio recordings, videos and more.
"Bert Meyers is an American original—a brilliant poet whose use of tone and figurative language was so emotive, intelligent and nuanced, it became inimitable, became its own unique perspective on our world. I wouldn't be surprised if mid-21st century scholars announce that in Bert Meyers we have overlooked the best poet of his generation. Immense gratitude to Dana Levin and Adele Williams for this rediscovery."
—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa and Deaf Republic
"The most exquisite poetry by any of the L.A.-born poets was written by Bert Meyers (1928-1979), a colossal talent.... He brought a remarkably precise physicality to poems of an unusual spiritual dimension, poems unlike anything else spawned by the '50s. And he is also capable of the most tender celebrations."
—Philip Levine, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
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