Paul Hostovsky
Thomas Lux, Poet Who Celebrated the Absurd, Dies at 70
—New York Times obituary
I don’t think he would have appreciated that.
And I don’t mean the dying, or even
the number—a nice round respectable number—
so much as the choice of the adjectival noun: the absurd.
Or is it a nominalized adjective? He would have
liked the question, the not quite knowing or caring,
or saying one way or the other in the poem,
if it were his poem. Which I like to think it sort of is
now that he’s dead and the writer of his obituary
got the headline wrong (like getting the headstone wrong)
and it’s left to me to right it: Thomas Lux
celebrated life (which, OK, is, granted, sometimes, yes,
absurd). He celebrated truth. “I like the story because
it’s true.” And beauty. And love. Always love. Which is
“always, regardless, no exceptions… blessed.” It’s a missed
opportunity, he called it in his workshops, when we don’t
call on the right words, the ones that are dying to be chosen,
as though sitting in a classroom with their hands raised
high, higher, practically levitating in their seats. Absurd
isn’t the right word. He was funny, yes, but dead
serious about the poems. He had fine, caramel hair
as long as a girl’s, but he had a mean lefty sidearm
that always hit home. He had lousy eye contact in front of the class,
or when standing up at the podium reading his poems,
but his gaze in the poems is laser, unflinching, lapidary.
Not a bad list, he would have said (three or more
adjectives make a list) but you can do better. Write
harder. This poetry business is hard work. “The thing
gets made, gets built, and you’re the slave…”
He slaved over every word, every pause, every line break.
“You make the thing because you love the thing.”
We love his poems because he loved them enough
to make us love them. Absurd? “Give me, please, a break!”
Originally published here.
Paul Hostovsky's poems have won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, and have been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer's Almanac, and the Best American Poetry blog. paulhostovsky.com