“Parsley” by Rita Dove
from Conspire's 1999 “Born of the Sun” RealAudio tribute to Denise Levertov & other women writers

      In a clear & musical voice, Rita Dove reads a poem which invokes the lyric impulse in order to tell the horrors of a particular bit of history: Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo's selection of 20,000 Haitians for execution by their French Creole pronunciation of the Spanish word for parsley, “perejil.” As Helen Vendler says, “No matter how painful her stories, no matter how sharp-edged her lines, her poems fall on the ear with solace.” She read “Parsley” at the White House, “to talk about the uses to which power has been put” and to “show what poetry could do,” & it does both these things, powerfully.

Listen to the recording at least once before you venture to Rita Dove's page at the Modern American Poetry site, where you will find both Vendler's & Dove's own comments on “Parsley.”

• Coleman Barks, “Spring Morning”
• Ernie Cline, “Tech Support”
• Billy Collins, “Japan”
• Emily Dickinson, “I cannot live with You”
• GNO, Jason Carney & Jason Edwards (Team Dallas 1998), “Superheroes”
• Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “Trumpet Player”
• June Melby, “Dust”
• Tracie Morris, “Chain Gang”
• Sylvia Plath, “On the Decline of Oracles”
• Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven”
• John Powers, “Thayer Street Blues”
• Molly Raynor, “Wings”
• Maureen Seaton, “Caprice”
• Lizzie Wann, “Patricia Said”
• Walt Whitman, “America”