Thoughts on Thomas Lux's Render, Render

Today I came across a love song of a poet -- through a motionvideo, a relatively new media for poetry. What a beautiful song it is.  The way a poet sings is by writing poetry and his best poetry is the one that is the product of mixing and boiling down all elements of his life. Including all the nasty elements like sweat, guilt, anger and fear. The cooking metaphor is so apt; perhaps this is a poem, or perhaps this is a life.  Then the poet adds a healthy serving of rose water to it, to dress it up. Let's say this was his life's poem.  What else could rose water be but his love? Then he kisses the world with his poem, the one that has been sweetened with his love. Perhaps, the world needs to be kissed by his essence. 




Render, Render

Boil it down: feet, skin, gristle,
bones, vertebrae, heart muscle, boil
it down, skim, and boil
again, dreams, history, add them and boil
again, boil and skim
in closed cauldrons, boil your horse, his hooves,
the runned-over dog you loved, the girl
by the pencil sharpener
who looked at you, looked away,
boil that for hours, render it
down, take more from the top as more settles to the bottom,
the heavier, the denser, throw in ache
and sperm, and a bead
of sweat that slid from your armpit to your waist
as you sat stiff-backed before a test, turn up
the fire, boil and skim, boil
some more, add a fever
and the virus that blinded an eye, now's the time
to add guilt and fear, throw
logs on the fire, coal, gasoline, throw
two goldfish in the pot (their swim bladders
used for "clearing"), boil and boil, render
it down and distill,
concentrate
that for which there is no
other use at all, boil it down, down,
then stir it with rosewater, that
which is now one dense, fatty, scented red essence
which you smear on your lips
and go forth
to plant as many kisses upon the world
as the world can bear!

- Thomas Lux


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