James Tate [ USA ]

Neben Lyrik veröffentlichte Tate auch einen Roman und zwei Bände mit Kurzgeschichten. Der vielfach ausgezeichnete Dichter ist Chancellor der Academy of American Poets und lehrt seit 1971 an der University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

© internationales literaturfestival berlin

My writing space is full of rats and parrots and iguanas.  I must crawl into it under zebras and giraffes.  When I finally get to my desk bats taunt me. I focus my eyes on a sheet of paper.  I slap it and spit at it.  Then I'm ready to go. I have never seen a piece of paper so white.  It reminds me of when I was a child in the arctic.  I was afraid to step outside our tent for fear of smudging what was already perfect.  I sit there for hours, the zebra licking my face.  Finally, I say, "I am going into the interior. It's a long and dangerous journey and I may never return.  Farewell, fond zebra. Remember me, noble giraffe."