GRACE PALEY ~

GRACE PALEY ~

Grace Paley & Robert Nichols

Here




Here I am in the garden laughing

an old woman with heavy breasts

and a nicely mapped face



how did this happen

well that's who I wanted to be



at last    a woman

in the old style    sitting

stout thighs apart under

a big skirt    grandchild sliding

on    off my lap    a pleasant

summer perspiration



that's my old man across the yard

he's talking to the meter reader

he's telling him the world's sad story

how electricity is oil or uranium

and so forth    I tell my grandson

run over to your grandpa    ask him

to sit beside me for a minute    I

am suddenly exhausted by my desire

to kiss his sweet explaining lips



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Grace Paley

GRACE PALEY ~

R E V I E W

An honest appreciation to this marvelous short story writer —

I have read all her stories but it was only after I heard Grace Paley read one of her stories, in a small town church never mind,

that I figured I wouldn't have to go back and read the stories again. I have Grace in my mind. The poems are at-ease and communal, the essays come straight from one barricade or another, quite poignant.

George Saunders is always unusually focused dead-on his subject. The Vietnam soldier and poet Kevin Bowen is the ideal craftsman to locate this book, and Paley's daughter Nora brings it all home.

Don't hesitate.

[ BA ]