Here is Marie Ponsot, half circled by five of her seven children once upon a time — author of a first book, True Minds, published in 1956 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti for his City Lights Pocket Poets series, and a second book published twenty-five years later — Admit Impediment in 1981. During those in-between years, she divorced her husband, the French artist Claude Ponsot, and raised the children as a single parent. To help raise that family, Ponsot taught basic composition at Queens College. She also translated more than 30 books from French into English. One of those celebrated translations include versions of La Fontaine’s fables and Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales.
Her Collected Poems was one of remarkable books in 2016.
Her Collected Poems was one of remarkable books in 2016.
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Among Women
What women wander?
Among Women
What women wander?
Not many. All. A few.
Most would, now & then,
& no wonder.
Some, and I’m one,
Wander sitting still.
My small grandmother
Bought from every peddler
Less for the ribbons and lace
Than for their scent
Of sleep where you will,
Walk out when you want, choose
Your bread and your company.
She warned me, “Have nothing to lose.”
She looked fragile but had
High blood, runner’s ankles,
Could endure, endure.
She loved her rooted garden, her
Grand children, her once
Wild once young man.
Women wander
As best they can.
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Marie Ponsot
COLLECTED POEMS
Knopf 2016
