Catherine's Laughter - C.K. Williams (Sarabande Books)

Today's book of poetry:

Catherine's Laughter.  C.K. Williams.  Quarternote Chapbook Series #11.  Sarabande Books.  Louisville, Kentucky.  2013.

Every woman should be so lucky as to have an eloquent poet in love with them.  Every man too.

C.K. Williams chapbook Catherine's Laughter might be the sweetest nod to being in love since Eros rained chocolates on Valentine's Day.

But there is no saccharine here, no cloying moment.

Dare I say it — these poems articulate and reflect the happiness of a real, adult, loving, human relationship between two adults who, even after many years have passed together, find all sorts of excuses to be fascinated by one another.

We get to share in Williams joy.

Funny

Jessie, my daughter, when she was eight, already the

warm and loving person she still is, said to me once when

Catherine was laughing about something with Jed in the

other room, "Catherine laughs funny, doesn't she?"

     "It's nice, though, isn't it?" I asked her.

     "Oh, yes, that's not what I mean," she replied.

     And Jed, when he was three, and still spoke mostly

French, would sometimes be uproariously amused by an

English word. "Inch," when I said it to him one day, sent

him into hysterics.

     Catherine was in the kitchen right then and when I

went in to get something, she said, "Jed has a funny laugh,

don't you think?"

     "What do you mean?" I asked her, "he has your laugh."

     "Really?" Catherine said, "Well, if you say so."

...

These prose poems are tender, sweet, never trite and deeply passionate missives to the love of C.K. Williams life, his wife Catherine.

You might think such unabashed declarations of love would be too anxious to be genuine but nothing could be further from the truth.  These poems read with a genuine warmth and kindness that leave the reader feeling both happy and hopeful.

Talk

Catherine and I, for some long forgotten reason, have both

been irritable all day, touchy, preoccupied, moody and

gloomy. Dinner is peaceful, though, and when we finish

Catherine asks, "Are we going to make love tonight?"

     I answer, "If I'm talking to you."

     "You don't have to talk," Catherine says.

...

I'm a big fan of matrimony and know only too well the many pitfalls that checker the path of even the best of unions.  These poems reinforce my best hopes that love can last because true love never ceases to grow.

These poems are a master class.

Oaks

After dinner, still at the table, I'm writing in my little note-

book, scribbling fast, when Catherine says she'd like to

take a walk. When I tell her I'm busy she takes the empty

dishes into the kitchen, then comes back.

     "Come on, take a walk."

     "I'm writing," I tell her.

     "Take your notebook. You can take your wine, too."

     "Wait just a minute," I say.

     "You need a bigger notebook," Catherine says then, "I'll

buy you a bigger notebook."

     "I don't need a bigger notebook, and don't get me one."

     "That's why I said it," Catherine says, "I just wanted to

hear you say that. Let's go for a walk."

     Finally I give up, give in, we stroll out across the park 

near our house, and come to the pair of gigantic old oaks

Catherine particularly loves. The trunk of each tree is about

five feet across, and they stand close together, leaning a lit-

tle as though making room for one another.

     They're in full-leaved gorgeousness right now, and 

when we get to them Catherine says, "You have to come

in here," and leads me between them.

     "Now close your eyes," she says.

     "Why?"

     "Because there are all those branches above us," she

answers, "and beneath us the roots. You have to listen."

     I listen, "But I don't..." I start to object.

     "You have to come stand here every day, then you

will." Catherine answers, not laughing now, "You'll see,

you will."

...

Optimism in a world where it is wanting, love and the promise of more love.  Reading this book made me happy.  How can you beat that?

C.K. Williams

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

C. K. Williams has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Ruth Lilly Prize, among other honors.  In 2010 he published the critical study, On Whitman, and a book of poetry, Wait.  In 2012 he published the poetry collections Writers Writing Dying and a book of essays, In Time: Poets, Poems, and the Rest.  He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

C.K. Williams reads "The Singing", from

his Collected Poems (Broadaxe Books)

www.sarabandebooks.org

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