What I Wore

by Catherine Daly




Grade School:

What I wore:
A tricorner hat, for the bicentennial, and France, and then after Marianne Moore.
A green, red, white, and black plaid uniform. In cold weather, we could only wear green pants underneath the uniform.
I wore a red sash around my waist, in homage to 1984.
Famolare shoes.

What I made:
A project about the planetary ages on a rollup window shade, so that as you pulled it down, you went back in time (to "darker" ages).
Science fair projects about solar energy, the eye, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
A song for the piano that sounded vaguely "Indian" to me.

High School:

What I wore:
From a closet full of blue and white clothes, most only vaguely "in uniform", my favorites were a pair of dark blue corduroy jodhpurs, a full length on me navy blue wrap skirt (borrowed from Mom, who is much taller), periwinkle blue high heel boots, and 60s-70s low slung metal belts.

What I made:
I designed my first dress, for senior prom.
Painted t-shirts with neon paint and fun fur.
A wall mural satirizing the Preppy Handbook for Geometry Class.

College:

What I made:
Earrings.

What I wrote:
Confessional poems.
The first of my "girl" poems.

Grad School:

What I wore:
Increasingly more acceptable business suits for my day job.

What I made:
Financial Services marketing materials and deal documents.
Lyric poems.



Bio: Catherine Daly is author of eight books, most recently VAUXHALL (Shearsman, 2008), which is in many ways the lyrical/sonic successor of her book Locket (Tupelo, 2005), from which these poems are translated. Catherine Daly lived in the same apartment building as Kris Petersen in New York, and they last worked together on The Last Canto (Duration Press, 1999), which originally included two translations into Italian as well as the translations from Italian.

Day 23: Catherine Daly

Catherine Daly is author of eight books, most recently VAUXHALL (Shearsman, 2008), which is in many ways the lyrical/sonic successor of her book Locket (Tupelo, 2005), from which these poems are translated. Catherine Daly lived in the same apartment building as Kris Petersen in New York, and they last worked together on The Last Canto (Duration Press, 1999), which originally included two translations into Italian as well as the translations from Italian.

catherine daly



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Advent Calendar

...................for Susana Gardner

every day looming
..............gloaming?

doors in the narrative Black Forest
..or flaps in sentimental landscapes:
shelters made of food, not shelter, trimmed white
trees

not passion-purple candles, but

accumulating light
counting physically, toward
a special calendar, liturgical year winding:

bedew us, bestow hope, focus
on abject bird, candy cane, winter flower
within this seasonal scene, no
on the piece of cardboard below it,

used once like a puzzle, a surprise
...............(not re-gifted)
quote withing the month, pattern

night and day verging midwinter
....."slant of light"

one, two, three, touching is a door, window
open to the birth
or end

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Catherine Daly writes holiday poems alternate years. Two of her Christmas poems, and many of her other occasional poems, are in her most recent book, Vauxhall (Shearsman, 2008).