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Tears, Oily Tears . . .

By James Schuyler 1923–1991 James Schuyler

Crying is a habit with me.

You mustn’t mind: onions make me

smog

headlines in the Daily News,

not getting enough sleep

going to the movies and not going.

Fear of getting bawled out by people shorter than me,

animals in zoos,

deserted buses late at night,

teargas, hunger, frustration

sob

and, oh, yes,

superfluous lines of verse and great beauty

move me to tears,

sliding out of me like oil

out of an over-oiled electric fan

Source: Poetry (November 2009).

Biography

Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Schuyler was a central member of the New York School. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and spent his teen years in East Aurora, New York, before attending Bethany College in West Virginia. During World War II, Schuyler served on a destroyer in the North Atlantic and remained in the US Navy until 1947. Before moving to New York in 1950, Schuyler lived for two years on the Isle of Ischia in Italy . . .

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