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Poem-a-Day - "Beggar" by Marilyn Kallet

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April 10, 2020  

Beggar
Marilyn Kallet

Just one!
I begged the Muse.

You again?
Always the same

schtick.
If you want the line,

you’ll have to earn it.
How?

Write about something
besides younger men,

Muse said.
Think of Elizabeth Bishop,

who spent twenty years
on “The Moose.”

No! I won’t!
Too late. I was already

minding my 
mousse

au
chocolat.

Copyright © 2020 by Marilyn Kallet. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 10, 2020 by the Academy of American Poets.

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“Don’t poets crave the taste of language in our mouths, on our tongues? When the speaker of ‘Beggar’ pleads for a line, there’s an almost-physical hunger at play. The inner critic, the ‘Muse,’ tries to stave off predictability. But the ardent speaker of ‘Beggar’ deflects the intellectual in favor of oral pleasure, plunges into dessert! That taste of chocolate in the last line surprised me as I wrote this playful love poem, but I’m guessing it would not have surprised Freud!”
—Marilyn Kallet
Marilyn Kallet’s most recent book of poems is How Our Bodies Learned (Black Widow Press, 2018). A Professor Emerita at the University of Tennessee, she leads poetry residencies in Auvillar, France, for the Virginia Center of the Creative Arts and is serving her second term as poet laureate of Knoxville.
How Our Bodies Learned
(Black Widow Press, 2018) 


 

Shelter in Poems


In response to a growing need for poetry during this uncertain time, we invite you to share poems from our Poets.org collection that help to find courage, solace, and actionable energy. Select responses will be featured in a special Shelter in Poems newsletter over the next several weeks.


 
“The Contrary Muse” by Naomi Replansky
“Sexy poem to cover my bases” by Emily Hunerwadel

Thanks to Joy Harjo, United States Poet Laureate and author of An American Sunrise (W. W. Norton & Company, 2019), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month’s weekdays. Read an extended Q&A about Harjo’s curatorial approach and find out more about our guest editors for the year.
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