Lay for the Day 8th January

1935: the birthday of Elvis Presley. (Note the striking likeness of Elvis to the Statue of Liberty. For further information, see here.)

From the book of Praises:

97. Of Elvis Presley

Adored and
mocked respectively
for what he wasn’t and was,

whether the sapling’s surge and rustle
of green, inspired and flexible youth

or later dark brown
cello roundness; royal, light
or midnight blue; whether inflated,
fattened, vibrated, in self-parodic pop,
touchingly; or driven at rock John-Henry-

like, directly – hollowness,
not emptiness but habitation
by a ghost persisted; who said to the folk
who mocked and adored him, “I hope I haven’t bored you.”

John Gibbens
from Collected Poems

 

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