Forum / Simic Poem: Let this one creep over you

• 
  David Ackley

  Jul 26, 01:39pm

  AS YOU COME OVER THE HILL

  You'll see cows grazing in a field
  And perhaps a chicken or a turtle
  And a small lake where a boy once
  Threw a girl in who couldn't swim

  And many large maple and oak trees
  Offering ample shade to lie in,
  Their branches to hang yourself from,
  Should you so desire
  Some lazy afternoon or evening

  When something tells the birds to hush
  And the one streetlight in the village
  To keep a few moths company
  And the large old house put up for sale
  With some of its windows broken.

  Charles Simic
  from NYRB May 9, 2013

• 
  Ann Bogle

  Jul 26, 02:15pm

  Fine art.

• 
  Chris Okum

  Jul 26, 09:56pm

  3rd and 4th lines are what make this poem brilliant.

• 
  Chris Okum

  Jul 26, 09:57pm

  I think it just stated the more than obvious. Sorry.

• 
  Chris Okum

  Jul 26, 10:09pm

  Typo: I meant to say that I think I just stated the obvious. Whoops. I am on a role.

• 
  Jerry Ratch

  Jul 27, 12:00am

  Nice!

• 
  mxi wodd

  Jul 27, 05:00am

  My favorite lines are 1 through 14.

• 
  mxi wodd

  Jul 27, 05:17am

  "I am on a role."

  ...on a roll
  ...in a role

  one's better than the other but

  .
  .
  .
  .
  .

  which?

• 
  Vincent Fino

  Jul 28, 02:21pm

  Brilliant poem, so eerie. I just finished The World Doesn't End, which hooked me onto Simic's writing.

• 
  Michael Gillan Maxwell

  Aug 27, 03:45pm

  LOVE Charles Simic! Had the good fortune to meet him and see him read at AWP. Got his collected works there. He's the real deal. His taut, lean simplicity makes it look easy, but it ain't.

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Aug 27, 05:33pm

  Haven't read Simic before. Now I must.

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