Dearest Reader, Coconut is pleased to present a poignant
retelling of the demise of Empedocles, the Greek philosopher who first
hypothesized the existence of the four classical elements and, according to
legend, committed suicide by flinging himself into the flames of Mt. Etna. Its author, Ron Padgett, is my favorite poet,
one of the very first I begged to contribute to my fledgling webzine more than
three years ago! When I was in high
school, his poems, along with Ted Berrigan’s, were the first poems I read and
loved (in Paul Carroll’s The Young American Poets, which just happened to be in
my high school library), making me think I wanted to be a poet too. His book Toujours L’Amour, along with Ted
Berrigan’s Many Happy Returns, was the first contemporary poetry book I ever
bought (at the Yale Coop in New Haven,CT
in high school). His poem “Sweet Pea” is
the loveliest of love poems, rivaled only by his “Love Poem,” which begins with
a tribute to Ohio Blue Tip matches. Surely you already own several of his books—How to Be Perfect, perhaps,
or You Never Know, or the wonderful Poems I Guess I Wrote or at least his
Teachers and Writers Handbook of Poetic Forms or the new selection of Kenneth
Koch poems he edited? If not, in order
to promote poetic karma and natural harmony and to save your good-poetry-reader
reputation, please visit your local independent bookseller upon dawn’s
commencement! (Oh, and don’t forget to
check out Coconut Two, where “Death
of Empedocles” first appeared! Not my
best-designed cover, I must admit!)
— Bruce Covey
The Death of Empedocles
Five fingers on each hand, five
toes on each foot, that’s enough.
I get into the past
which has a different kind of dust on it.
There’s an old Coke bottle with dust on it
behind the bust of I think Empedocles—
Nobody from the neck down. O
Empedocles, don’t jump into that volcano!
But jump he did, with his whole body,
bouncing off the rocks on the way down.
And you call this a philosopher?
I don’t think he set a very good example.
— Ron Padgett