The Signings - Robert Pinsky

[Larry Robinson]

The Signings 

Lies can be charismatic, the truth is cloudy,

With its traditional testing place a body.

I cross my heart and hope to die. The breath,

One hand on the book, one raised, exhales the oath.

The bully making a club of the victim’s hand,

“You hit yourself”: Falsehood asserts Command.

Mortgage papers declare and hereby pledge

That money is money. Sign here, page after page.

The President holds up for the camera’s eye

A paper with his signature, two inches high.

Times when he lied or cheated, the Director

Made longhand notes. Now the Director’s an author

On a bookstore tour. He produced his clunky book

Himself. No ghost. In a defensive joke

At signings a writer I know likes to set up

A jar he labels “For Tips”: wry overlap

Of Truth, Marketing and Art. Any collector

Knows to pay less for copies with a signed sticker

Than one with its title page directly signed:

Authentic, true. But on the other hand,

Inscribed to someone’s name is somehow worth less

Than simply Signed, out here in the marketplace —

But why? The blemish of the particular?

Or truth too a commodity? Flailing for air.

	- Robert Pinsky
	(Listen to Pinsky read it himself: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/lifestyle/magazine/ben-folds-artists-alternative-storytelling-issue/?utm_term=.6cb833a99cd1#pg-benfolds <https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/lifestyle/magazine/ben-folds-artists-alternative-storytelling-issue/?utm_term=.6cb833a99cd1#pg-benfolds>)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/poetrylovers/attachments/20180911/6c87bfd7/attachment.html>