Source: Poetry Everywhere
This video segment from Poetry Everywhere features the poet Maxine Kumin reading her poem “After Love” at the Dodge Poetry Festival. The poem captures a brief moment of tranquility in the life of a married couple. Often compared to the poet Robert Frost, Kumin uses spare, direct language, and careful attention to detail to explore love, loss, and the natural world of her rural New England.
For a biography of the poet Maxine Kumin, please visit the Poetry Foundation Web site.
The poem is held in the mind of one person who is part of a couple; they have just made love, and now lay in their bed, slowly separating from each other mentally and physically. Arms and legs that were intertwined are pulled apart; fingers are no longer touching another body. Both people are returning to their individuality. In the process, their surroundings come into focus.
Moving out of an intense experience can make us stop and look at our surroundings differently. Items we take for granted are almost magnified, as if we are seeing or hearing them for the first time. Kumin carries us through this process and her changed perspective, using surprising verbs. A poem can come from inside oneself or from the outside environment. She gives us access to both.
Read a biography of the poet Maxine Kumin at the Poetry Foundation Web site.
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