Features Feb 19, 2009 at 4:00 am

Unkissed

A Fibonacci Sequence Poem

Sherman Alexie
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Comments

1
Dear Stranger,

Please have this young poet read this poem and record it and post it on your website as either an audio recording or a video! It begs to be heard/seen. I can already hear/see the distance and numbness and noble American resignation/defeat in this young man's voice. (I can also hear/see his parenthetical voice being conversational, avuncular, ripe with sarcazm and unintended meaning.)

I sense a long career in this restless and still developing writer. I'm glad the Stranger furthered his career with a Genie...
on February 18, 2009 at 1:32 PM Report this
2
This was lovely.

Thank you!
on February 18, 2009 at 3:11 PM Report this
3
I adore you, Sherman Alexie.
on February 18, 2009 at 4:38 PM Report this
4
number 1 is not a fibonacci seq:

number of words per line:
1 1 2 2 4
should be:
1 1 2 3 5

gotcha!
on February 18, 2009 at 4:45 PM Report this
5
I loves me soem Sherman Alexie, but I think this poem misses the mark...in more ways than one.

If you're gonna start publishing poems, how about some Jorie Graham or Louise Gluck???
on February 18, 2009 at 4:58 PM Report this
6
"This week, for the first time in our history, The Stranger is publishing a poem"? How could you have forgetten Sam Mickens' sestina or whatever it was from the last Regrets issue? I haven't laughed so hard in ages.
on February 18, 2009 at 5:00 PM Report this
7
@maths- count the syllables, jackass
on February 18, 2009 at 5:03 PM Report this
8
Can you guys do this every week? These are wonderful (not that I expect less from Sherman Alexie).
on February 18, 2009 at 5:04 PM Report this
9
Lovely poem, but are times so bad with literary journals that Sherman Alexie is being forced to publish in The Stranger? Sign of the times?
on February 18, 2009 at 5:06 PM Report this
10
@maths: it's not the number of words that follow the sequence, it's the number syllables. count them. it works out: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13
on February 18, 2009 at 5:09 PM Report this
11
Forced to publish in the Stranger? I'm guessing that's about as lofty as this piece of crap could rise.
on February 18, 2009 at 7:41 PM Report this
12
I love Sherman Alexie, but his frank sexuality always makes me feel slightly uncomfortable for his wife.
on February 18, 2009 at 9:08 PM Report this
13
More please.
on February 19, 2009 at 7:22 AM Report this
14
Actually, danindowntown, Sherman will reach audiences in the Stranger that might otherwise never be exposed to poetry.

But I'm curious about the text in between the poems. The paragraphs sound as if they are reflections by the poet, but.... daughters?
on February 19, 2009 at 8:31 AM Report this
15
@ GoodListener Perhaps...
on February 19, 2009 at 10:03 AM Report this
16
@frasier- your sincerity is adorable atop your obvious obliviousness. The guy's already a "famous poet". Well, he's as big as any Native's gotten yet, and as far as we can tell right now, that's as far as any Indian's ever going.

Just enjoy it. It's already there.
on February 19, 2009 at 10:34 AM Report this
17
@danindowntown You know he's a local, long-lived Seattlelite too, right?
on February 19, 2009 at 10:37 AM Report this
18
@Goodlistener, just because he uses "I" doesn't mean he's writing about himself. its a poem, not journalism.
on February 19, 2009 at 11:10 AM Report this
19
@ Bun Yes, I know that, I too am a Seattle local and lifetime resident. What is your point in stating that? I still think Sherman Alexie can do better than publishing new work in The Stranger, unless this is part of an attempt by The Stranger to raise the level of content in its pages.
on February 19, 2009 at 12:40 PM Report this
20
Yay.
on February 19, 2009 at 4:19 PM Report this
21
this is nice, but it is not a poem. it is prose. nice try.
on February 19, 2009 at 4:23 PM Report this
22
Sherman,
Please turn up the heat on the rape of forgiveness.

:{
on February 19, 2009 at 4:36 PM Report this
24
I enjoy this poem more and more with each successive reading.
on February 19, 2009 at 5:31 PM Report this
25
I
Find
Those few lines
Were for the pale and weak of mind.
I read that mild tripe, taste bile,
I double-bend, retch, and puke butterflies
on February 19, 2009 at 6:51 PM Report this
26
Is this one of those poems that you call 'beautiful' and then drop in the trash can and never look at again?
on February 19, 2009 at 7:16 PM Report this
27
this is poo-y.

sorry a-lex-ie.

poo-poo

p
on February 19, 2009 at 8:49 PM Report this
28
I love the poems, but are the parenthetical comments really necessary? Yes, they fill out the page, but they destroy the natural succinctness of the form, and any sense of mystery or myth. Love you, Sherman.
on February 19, 2009 at 9:41 PM Report this
29
thanks for posting.
on February 19, 2009 at 10:40 PM Report this
30
How in the world can you people be discussing left brain math and technical minutia in a totally right brain creative effort. What do you mean gotcha - When someone is creating from the soul - technicalities should be dumped so the soul can listen. Did you even listen, do you have a soul to listen with?

santafepea
on February 20, 2009 at 3:39 AM Report this
31
Thank you.
on February 20, 2009 at 10:17 AM Report this
32
I don't usually like poetry- but this was great!
on February 20, 2009 at 11:06 AM Report this
33
I am an ardent fan of Sherman Alexie and old enuf to be his grandmother. I read the Stranger every chance I get, it isn't very available where I live, so mostly get to read it in Seattle. Thanks so much for this wonderful poem. Ive learned where this approach came from and enjoyed the poetry. Thanks to the Stranger.
on February 20, 2009 at 3:03 PM Report this
34
i really enjoyed these.
on February 20, 2009 at 3:07 PM Report this
35
Lovely lovely lovely.
on February 20, 2009 at 6:51 PM Report this
37
I just enjoyed them, even if they aren't perfect in how many sYllables, a welcome change from that blather about the sonics, a reminder of what it is to be human/fallible.
on February 21, 2009 at 7:43 PM Report this
38
i clicked on this but somehow missed the fact that it was an alexie poem...halfway through i thought 'this sounds like alexie...' then got to the bottom.

i love.
on February 21, 2009 at 10:40 PM Report this
39
Dudes, I'm glad you like the poems. But Sherman Alexie isn't some up-and-coming young schmuck. He's, like, an institution of contemporary American literature.
on February 22, 2009 at 8:48 AM Report this
40
sonnet for leela

If my words would fail me in this task
of bringing you close to me, to my arms
then I fear that I would lose all interest
in words. I would put aside this hobby

of writing sonnet after sonnet, no
more late night scribbling could give my heart hope
and the world would never know of me.
So if you are bad news then I'm the worst.

If you think you're no good, you're not the first.
Come fold yourself into my arms again;
I don't care if you have another man.

You could slip me money, discreetly and
I would be your happy whore. If we're to
meet again I cannot leave you unkissed.
on February 22, 2009 at 3:54 PM Report this
41
makes we want to read more sherman alexie.... thanks
on February 22, 2009 at 7:34 PM Report this
42
I'm not concerned about the faithfulness to Fibonacci’s principal, I just don’t see how it adds anything to the poem. True, it provided him a framework within which to work (like sonnets or haiku) but the structure should never over-power the content. Alexie didn’t do that, exactly, but he let his prose overpower the whole piece. It wasn’t a poem, it wasn’t 6 poems. It was prose, competently written, with a gimmick of syllables and rhymes (numbered for no good reason) as a header.

Dear Stranger, unfreeze your hell, you haven’t published a poem yet.
on February 22, 2009 at 8:48 PM Report this
43
yes, the syllables, touche. I lose the internet.
on February 23, 2009 at 12:19 PM Report this
44
These were my faves of the poetry so far.

Kudos!
on February 23, 2009 at 12:25 PM Report this
45
Hey Stranger: Tell Sherman to bring back his hedgehog story.
on February 23, 2009 at 1:50 PM Report this
46
Wow. Sherman Alexie, you hit it right on the mark!
I'm ready for more.
on February 23, 2009 at 11:12 PM Report this
47
Sherman kicked butt with his poems at 72 Hours at the Hugo House. What a great performance. What a treat to read more here.
on February 24, 2009 at 9:32 AM Report this
48
She
ran
in fear
of the day
that he would go way
on February 24, 2009 at 12:44 PM Report this
49
@mybong'snameissherman
I get your crit of the prose addition to the piece, but think of it this way. How much more did you appreciate Tintern Abbey when you realize Wordsworth's dedication of it to his sister, and its relevance to the burgeoning Romantic movement. Did knowing that Kubla Khan was inspired by opium or that Allen Ginsburg was gay before you read the material lessen their respective merits?
Also, being completely unfamiliar with the poet above, my first reading with the prose led me to doubt the veracity of the parenthetical additions. I thought it added subtlety, especially to something like the constrained poetic form which might otherwise have felt a little flat. Eh...
on February 24, 2009 at 1:00 PM Report this
50
Sherman that was fantastic. I loved it. All of it.

To the peanut gallery: 1) Sherman is not a "young" or "developing" writer. 2) the Fibonacci sequence here is completely accurate. 3) The parenthetical parts are wonderful.. and it's still a poem if the creator of the work says it's a poem (check a dictionary) so.. 4) Layla shut the fuck up with your smug self.
on February 25, 2009 at 1:45 PM Report this
51
More Poetry, More Sherman Alexie
on February 25, 2009 at 4:13 PM Report this
52
and I agree with devon,
"Layla shut the fuck up with your smug self"
on February 25, 2009 at 4:15 PM Report this
53
@your name here
I never knew Kubla Khan was inspired by opium. Now I know, and now when I read the poem, the experience has been permanently altered. Not for the better, or worse, just different. Poems "work" through interaction with the reader, so why taint the reader with information which they could easily infer, either correctly or incorrectly, or gather for themselves?
on February 25, 2009 at 10:19 PM Report this
54
@mybongsnameissherman
point, I guess in the end it's the whole wine debate... So, what is the best kind of wine? Well? It's the kind you like.
Oh yeah, and Coleridge purportedly jotted down K. Khan after a nod session. He wanted (if I'm remembering right) to convey the utter ectasy and emotional joy that the dream inspired in him so it wouldn't slip away.
Those Romantics...
on February 26, 2009 at 10:38 AM Report this
55
Yup. Thanks for the K. Khan tidbit. Valuable information, that(after the fact).
on February 27, 2009 at 9:25 PM Report this
56
This is ingenious storytelling, and beautifully done.
on March 1, 2009 at 1:06 PM Report this
57
PIG
LATIN?
C(U)M DUMP
OH SILLY NATIVE
I WANT TO HEAR MORE
ABOUT BASKETBALL, HEAT-DEATH OF SONICS, AND LOVE.
on March 5, 2009 at 12:08 PM Report this
58
Layla is right.

And so is Liz.

Just like most of his writings. Pure poo-poo.

Whats even more sadder are the people who eat it up.

Like the rates it charges just to hear more of it's worthless poo-poo.

God save these naive souls.

A little poem I call "White can see right"
on April 15, 2009 at 5:24 PM Report this
59
re: #4
I didn't want it enough.
on June 17, 2009 at 3:55 AM Report this

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