Eating Poetry

Eating Poetry by Mark Strand

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.
There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry.

The librarian does not believe what she sees.
Her eyes are sad
and she walks with her hands in her dress.

The poems are gone.
The light is dim.
The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.

Their eyeballs roll,
their blond legs burn like brush.
The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.

She does not understand.
When I get on my knees and lick her hand,
she screams.

I am a new man.
I snarl at her and bark.
I romp with joy in the bookish dark. 

 

"Eating Poetry" allows readers to understand the feeling poetry gives to Strand. It transforms him into a surreal world in which he can be whatever he desires.  This poem is also extremely crucial in understanding Strand's general style. He places normal characters within abnormal settings, therefore foiling the crucial differences between art and society. The librarian symbolizes somewhat of a factual, normal world, in which there is know creativity and she "does not understand". When he frightens her by transforming into a dog he is mocking her and society in a way, for not being able to express themselves like he can as he "romp[s] with joy in the bookish dark." The dog, both in its own form and once the speaker transforms into a canine state, symbolizes guardianship and happiness for poetry and his art.