#laura gilpin

[saturnvs]

and as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual

[lizormianillustration]

two-headed calf - laura gilpin

[poetrysmackdown]

[fragrantblossoms]

Laura Gilpin. Shepherds of the Desert, 1934.

[metamorphesque]

Two-Headed Calf, by Laura Gilpin

Tomorrow when the farm boys find this freak of nature, they will wrap his body in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north field with his mother. It is a perfect summer evening: the moon rising over the orchard, the wind in the grass. And as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual.

[asoftepiloguemylove]

Laura Gilpin The Two-Headed Calf // Linda Pastan Why Are Your Poems so Dark? // Margaret Atwood Shapechangers In Winter // @/doeantlers (twitter) // Vladimir Nabokov Letters to Vera // Ada Limón Dead Stars // @xshayarsha

[nobeerreviews]

A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.

-- Laura Gilpin

(Zürich, Switzerland)

[magick-memes]

i may be a freak of nature but tonight i am alive

[blondringlets]

Two headed calf, Laura Gilpin

[thetremblingroofbeam]

“Tomorrow when the farm boys find this

freak of nature, they will wrap his body

in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north

field with his mother. It is a perfect

summer evening: the moon rising over

the orchard, the wind in the grass. And

as he stares into the sky, there are

twice as many stars as usual.”

- Laura Gilpin

[this-world-of-beautiful-monsters]

just. like. the fact that the two headed calf poem is about the brevity of life and the cruelty of those who can't find beauty in the freakish and holding on to what moments and wonders you can, but at the same time.

at the same time you've got this little calf seeing twice as many stars in the sky and you've got people making art of him, over and over again, so much of it, so many mediums and styles from so many people who've probably never even met each other, so much of everything, from the passionate and the introspective to the scientific and the shitposty, all these people celebrating him and mourning him and preserving him, protecting him, replicating and resurrecting him however we can.

and you can take a little freak and wrap him in newspaper, but an idea, even one as small and strange as a two headed calf, is so much harder to kill. you can't stop the newspaper, but tonight stretches on, returned to over and over again with every picture, every bit of contemplation, every joke and meme, on and on and on and on.

twice upon twice upon twice upon twice as many stars in the sky. and we can see them all alongside him.

[saturnvs]

two headed calf and his mother

[thedumbbrunette0-0]

Okay… so we all love “The Two-Headed Calf” by Laura Gilpin, but here are some of her other poems that I think deserve some recognition

[poetrysmackdown]

Visit "Wild Geese" if you'd like to hear it read by the author!

[fragrantblossoms]

Laura Gilpin. Mrs. Francis & Corn, 1933.