Thelonious Magpie: A Book of Found Poems

By Grace Andreacchi

Thelonious Magpie flits about, snatching up all the fine, shiny words and refashioning them to her own taste and purpose. Then riffs freely and fancifully, like the finest jazz. These poems are taken from many diverse sources, including online forums, advertising copy, journals, letters, interviews and texts both literary and otherwise. Each poem is made up only of words from the cited source text. Some of these poems are great fun, some more thoughtful, sad, or even terrifying. There are poems about love and sex, about children, death, angels and animals. A book to discover the rich language lurking in unlikely places.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9781446125052

Grace Andreacchi

Grace Andreacchi was born and raised in New York City but has lived on the far side of the great ocean for many years—sometimes in Paris, sometimes Berlin, and nowadays in London. Works include the novels Scarabocchio and Poetry and Fear (Andromache Books), Give my Heart Ease, which received the New American Writing Award, and Music for Glass Orchestra. Stories and poetry appear in both online and print journals. Her work can be viewed at graceandreacchi.com. 

Book preview

I. ANGELS

CONCERNING ANGELS

Angels exist but

they don't have wings

You do not see angels

so much as feel their presence

a bit like sunlight

through a crystal vase

Angels are right here on earth doing good 

Their light radiates and glows from within

They have sparkle

There's an angel living

in my flashlight

If you don’t believe in angels

it’s because you never asked them to help

find you a parking place

Or it’s because you never

asked seriously to see one

[from a piece and 3 separate comments, ‘Angels Exist but they don’t have wings’, Daily Mail, 1/12/ 2013]

THE ANGEL OF HISTORY

His eyes are staring

his mouth is open

his wings are spread

Where we perceive a chain of events

he sees one single catastrophe

wreckage upon wreckage 

The angel would like to stay

awaken the dead

make whole what has been smashed

But a storm is blowing from Paradise

it has got caught in his wings

the angel can no longer close