Today's Fredlines: June 15, 2009 Archive

The Poet who Hates Mozart

Posted at 8:56 PM on June 15, 2009 by Fred Child (9 Comments)

Her name is Laure-Anne Bosselaar, and I hope I say her name right on the radio...not because I want to be correct, but because she'll be listening and has a degree in elocution. (Check out her remarkable bio.)

The Pleasures of Hating

I hate Mozart. Hate him with that healthy
pleasure one feels when exasperation has

crescendoed, when lungs, heart, throat,
and voice explode at once: I hate that! -

there's bliss in this, rapture. My shrink
tried to disabuse me, convinced I use Amadeus

as a prop: Think further, your father perhaps?
I won't go back, think of the shrink

with a powdered wig, pinched lips, mole:
a transference, he'd say, a relapse: so be it.

I hate broccoli, chain saws, patchouli, bra-
clasps that draw dents in your back, roadblocks,

men in black kneesocks, sandals and shorts-
I love hating that. Loathe stickers on tomatoes,

jerky, deconstruction, nazis, doilies. I delight
in detesting. And love loving so much after that.

(Laure-Anne Bosselaar, "The Pleasures of Hating" from Small Gods of Grief. Copyright © 2001 by Laure-Anne Bosselaar. Used by permission of the poet and BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.)

Laure-Anne Bosselaar joins us on PT on Tuesday the 16th to read "The Pleasures of Hating"...and it's an evocative, rhythmic, churning read, you gotta hear it! I'll post a link to the audio as soon as I get my hands on it.

Very curious to hear if there's music you love to hate? Leave a comment.

More poems by Laure-Anne Bosselaar here. Interview with her here.

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