I confess that I am not particularly well versed (poetry joke!) in the New York School poets. I’ve read a bit of Ashberry and a bit more Frank O’Hara, but never much Kenneth Koch. It hasn’t been a conscious omission; I simply found other poets first who claimed my attention.
Last week Kenneth Koch’s “In Love with You” popped up in my inbox as the Poetry Foundation’s poem of the day, and I was hooked by its exuberance, its vitality; it features non-ironic exclamation points!
While I admire many love poems, most of them are so intimate, so particular to a person or time or place that I find myself distanced from them. Like Whitman’s poems (at least for me), however, “In Love with You”‘s specificity crescendoes into a feeling of overwhelming universality. And I love a love poem that makes me grin.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find a book of Kenneth Koch’s poetry.
Do you have a favorite grin-worthy love poem?
Rosemary and Reading Glasses 
I have to apologize because I think my company has changed the security settings for our email. I realized the other day I wasn’t getting my email notices from any of my blogging friends anymore. I guess I’m going to have to check everyone’s sites manually from now on.
No worries! That happened to me for a few weeks — now I use the Reader function.
Yeah, I liked that the ones I liked best arrived in my email, because I wasn’t looking at the Reader function very often. I guess I need to start doing that.
I use the Reader function too. It’s helpful to have everything in one place, though it means I sometimes forget to visit the blogs that notify by email.
I’m so new to poetry I don’t think I have a grin-worthy selection to share. ‘In Love With You’ was lovely, thank you for sharing, it definitely made for a more smiley me this Wednesday morn.
Excellent! Always feel free to write in to the poetry concierge!
It’s lovely, and the exclamation marks remind me so much of my son’s way of talking and writing. I like the innocence that being in love brings us back to!
Me too!
I really liked the cadence of this poem and how the poet, or the subject in love, notices every little thing. I also can’t think of any grin-worthy examples unless it’s Shel Silverstein’s poems, which are meant for humor specifically. Now I’m on the lookout for grin-worthy poems, especially grinny love poems.
Let me know if you find anything!
One of my favorites, also happening to be one of Koch’s, is “The Boiling Water”. It’s a meditation on the meaningful nature of all things. Rather a delicious read as well. I love his work; thanks for bringing him to the fore.
I’ll look for that one –thank you! And thank you for stopping by.