{"id":7763,"date":"2021-06-18T19:28:16","date_gmt":"2021-06-18T19:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=7763"},"modified":"2021-07-17T19:05:30","modified_gmt":"2021-07-17T19:05:30","slug":"dark-canzone-a-poem-by-e-m-schorb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/dark-canzone-a-poem-by-e-m-schorb\/","title":{"rendered":"DARK CANZONE. A Poem by E M Schorb."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul>\n<ol><em>  Considerate la vostra semenza . . .<\/em><br \/>\n                                                                      \u2014Dante<\/ul>\n<\/ol>\n<p>From when some wandering primate first discovered<br \/>\nthat vocal cords had formed within its throat:<br \/>\nwhen thorax wind was blown, and it discovered<br \/>\na modulation of its grunts, discovered<br \/>\nit had a tongue that could articulate<br \/>\nmore subtly than it had presumed; discovered,<br \/>\nin fact, its ur-humanity; discovered<br \/>\nthat it was different from monkeys, wiser,<br \/>\nand could communicate a plan; was wiser,<br \/>\none than the other, in this gift; discovered,<br \/>\nin short, itself as special being, poet,<br \/>\nit sang in lamentation for the poet,<br \/>\nO felt itself the oddest ape, a poet,<br \/>\nand, with the weight of what it knew, discovered<br \/>\nthe truest nature of itself as poet,<br \/>\nthat it must bear the burden of the poet,<br \/>\nharsh bile of truth that rises in the throat<br \/>\nand burns the vocal cords of every poet.<br \/>\nFor meaning murders innocence, the poet<br \/>\nlearns, word by word; and to articulate<br \/>\nas in a grammar, to articulate<br \/>\nas words demand, and so to be a poet<br \/>\nis to be that most special being, stranger<br \/>\nthan any other animal\u2014but wiser?<br \/>\nIt felt itself the strangest thing, much stranger<br \/>\nthan any other animal\u2014a poet\u2014<br \/>\nfor words had made it thuswise stranger.<br \/>\nBut was it better being this much wiser?<br \/>\nWhat had this primate after all discovered?<br \/>\nWho really thinks it\u2019s better to be wiser?<br \/>\nWho doesn\u2019t know it\u2019s sadder to be wiser?<br \/>\nWho envies words blown through a poet\u2019s throat?<br \/>\nWhat poet hasn\u2019t wished to cut its throat?<br \/>\nIf grammar makes for meaning, is it wiser<br \/>\nto be a special being, to articulate<br \/>\nthe truth words find\u2014or not articulate?<br \/>\nIt may be braver to articulate,<br \/>\nto be an animal, yet strangely wiser,<br \/>\nbut is it wisdom to articulate<br \/>\nthe grunts of animals, articulate<br \/>\nfrom them the existential life of poet<br \/>\namong the primates, to articulate\u2014<br \/>\nsyntactically commanded\u2014articulate<br \/>\nthe place in nature that we have discovered,<br \/>\nthe death in nature that we have discovered?<br \/>\nGrunt one last grunt!  Enough!  Articulate<br \/>\nno more!  Oh, envy nothing from the throat<br \/>\nof any poet!  Let it cut its throat!<br \/>\nOh, let the primate poet cut its throat<br \/>\nbefore it\u2019s forced on to articulate,<br \/>\nby sending lamentations through its throat,<br \/>\nfrom its self-fabled heart and out its throat,<br \/>\nhow truly sad it is to be a little wiser<br \/>\nthan other animals that have a throat<br \/>\nbut have no vocal cords within that throat<br \/>\nwhich they can use to make themselves a poet<br \/>\nwho sings the lamentations of a poet,<br \/>\na sadder wiser primate prophet poet,<br \/>\nwhose ordered language has at last discovered<br \/>\nwhat happy animals have not discovered . . . .<br \/>\nWhat is it animals have not discovered,<br \/>\nwhich leaves them happier than any poet?<br \/>\nThe ordered thought of death!  It might be wiser<br \/>\nfor nature never to articulate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/dark-canzone-a-poem-by-e-m-schorb\/em-schorb-image\/#main\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7768\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/em-schorb-image.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"286\" height=\"289\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7768\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Schorb\u2019s work has appeared in <em>Agenda (UK), The American Scholar, The Carolina Quarterly, The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, Stand (UK), The Sewanee Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, The North American Review, Poetry Salzburg Review (AU), The Yale Review<\/em>, and<em> Oxford Poetry (UK), among others.<\/em><br \/>\n &nbsp;<br \/>\nHis collection,<em> Murderer\u2019s Day,<\/em> was awarded the Verna Emery Poetry Prize and published by Purdue University Press, and a subsequent collection, <em>Time and Fevers<\/em>, was the recipient of the Writer\u2019s Digest International Self-Published Award for Poetry and also an Eric Hoffer Award.<br \/>\n &nbsp;<br \/>\nMost recently, his novel<em> R&#038;R a Sex Comedy<\/em> was awarded the Beverly Hills Book Award for Humor.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\">Poetry Life and Times<\/a> at <a href=\"http:\/\/Artvilla.com\">Artvilla.com <\/a>; You may visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aquillrelle.com\/authorrobin.htm\">Aquillrelle.com\/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop <\/a> about author &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/poetrylifeandtimes.com\">https:\/\/poetrylifeandtimes.com<\/a> See Robin performing his work <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/robin-hislop-reads-at-university-of-leeds-his-poetry-and-translations-video-performance\">Performance (University of Leeds)<\/a><\/p>\n<p align=\"CENTER\">\n<div class=\"wp-socializer wpsr-share-icons\" data-lg-action=\"show\" data-sm-action=\"show\" data-sm-width=\"768\"><h3>Share and Enjoy !<\/h3><div class=\"wpsr-si-inner\"><div class=\"wpsr-counter wpsrc-sz-40px\" style=\"color:#000\"><span class=\"scount\" data-wpsrs=\"\" data-wpsrs-svcs=\"pinterest,print,pdf,twitter\"><i class=\"fa fa-share-alt\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i><\/span><small class=\"stext\">Shares<\/small><\/div><div class=\"socializer sr-popup sr-count-1 sr-40px sr-pad\"><span class=\"sr-pinterest\"><a data-pin-custom=\"true\" data-id=\"pinterest\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/create\/button\/?url=&amp;media=&amp;description=\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Submit this to Pinterest\"><i class=\"fab fa-pinterest\"><\/i><span class=\"ctext\" data-wpsrs=\"\" data-wpsrs-svcs=\"pinterest\"><\/span><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-print\"><a data-id=\"print\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.printfriendly.com\/print?url=\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Print this article \"><i class=\"fa fa-print\"><\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-pdf\"><a data-id=\"pdf\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.printfriendly.com\/print?url=\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Convert to PDF\"><i class=\"fa fa-file-pdf\"><\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-twitter\"><a data-id=\"twitter\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=%20-%20%20\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Tweet this !\"><i class=\"fab fa-twitter\"><\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-share-menu\"><a href=\"#\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"More share links\" style=\"color:#ffffff;\" data-metadata=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;excerpt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;image&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;short-url&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;rss-url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.artvilla.com\\\/plt\\\/feed\\\/&quot;,&quot;comments-section&quot;:&quot;comments&quot;,&quot;raw-url&quot;:null,&quot;twitter-username&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;fb-app-id&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;fb-app-secret&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\"><i class=\"fa fa-plus\"><\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wp-socializer wpsr-share-icons\" data-lg-action=\"show\" data-sm-action=\"show\" data-sm-width=\"768\"><div class=\"wpsr-si-inner\"><div class=\"socializer sr-popup sr-32px sr-pad\"><span class=\"sr-facebook\"><a data-id=\"facebook\" style=\"background-color:#1e73be;color:#8224e3;\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share.php?u=\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Share this on Facebook\"><i class=\"fab fa-facebook-f\"><\/i><\/a><\/span>\n<span class=\"sr-share-menu\"><a href=\"#\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"More share links\" style=\"background-color:#1e73be;color:#8224e3;\" data-metadata=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;excerpt&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;image&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;short-url&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;rss-url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.artvilla.com\\\/plt\\\/feed\\\/&quot;,&quot;comments-section&quot;:&quot;comments&quot;,&quot;raw-url&quot;:null,&quot;twitter-username&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;fb-app-id&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;fb-app-secret&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\"><i class=\"fa fa-plus\"><\/i><\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Considerate la vostra semenza . . . \u2014Dante From when some wandering primate first discovered that vocal cords had formed within its throat: when thorax wind was blown, and it discovered a modulation of its grunts, discovered it had a tongue that could articulate more subtly than it had presumed; discovered, in fact, its ur-humanity; &#8230; <a title=\"DARK CANZONE. A Poem by E M Schorb.\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/dark-canzone-a-poem-by-e-m-schorb\/\" aria-label=\"More on DARK CANZONE. A Poem by E M Schorb.\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[726,572,179,808,796,366,754,401],"tags":[18,136,874],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7763"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7770,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7763\/revisions\/7770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}