Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


DOWNWIND by CLARENCE MAJOR

Poem Explanation Poet Analysis

First Line: ODOR OF DEATH EVERYWHERE

Odor of death everywhere.

You're on a ship
and they're serving you rotten meat,
maggots crawling in it.

Which reminds me of the Stanislavsky film
set in Russia where the mates
take over and cut the captain and his men

into little pieces and drop them
in the ocean of Albert Ryder's bad eyesight --

a view unexpected.


Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA
98368-0271, www.cc.press.org



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