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Column 696

After the Opera

Intro by Ted Kooser
07.22.2018

My teacher and men­tor, the late Karl Shapiro, once said of opera, I’m afraid, Ted, that it’s sort of sil­ly.” Here is a poem by Richard Schiff­man that has a lit­tle fun with the hair-on-fire excess­es of grand opera. It’s from his book, What the Dust Does­n’t Know, from Salmon Poetry. 

After the Opera

The curtain parts one last time
and the ones who killed
and were killed,
who loved inordinately,
who went berserk, were flayed alive,
descended to Hades,
raged, wept, schemed—
victims and victimizers alike—
smile and nod and graciously bow.
So glad it's finally over,
they stride off
suddenly a bit ridiculous
in their overwrought costumes.
And the crowd—still dark,
like God beyond the footlights of the world—
rises to its feet
and roars like the sea.
 
 

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2017 by Richard Schiffman, "After the Opera," from What the Dust Doesn't Know, (Salmon Poetry, 2017). Poem reprinted by permission of Richard Schiffman and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.