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Article: In prosperous America, the p ...
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- August 31, 2008
- Author:
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In prosperous America, the poet's economic reality usually
involves working a crap job while scribbling nightly in a cheap
apartment. Before my pal John Engman suffered a brain aneurysm in
his 40s, he toiled in such obscurity. He lived in Minnesota, bussed
tables, did standup comedy for a while, taught a class or two at a
local community center, but only published two books. From his long-
time job as an aide in an adolescent psych ward came poems rich in
pathos, each tinged with his signature irony.
In "Poem With Sedative Effect," he writes, "On the hospital unit
where I work/ a young girl wrote 'I love you' on the walls// with
excrement."
Offsetting this grim stuff, in "Aluminum Folding ...