Dear God

 

Do you think you could fix it so that I might have some of
Martin’s playfulness, his humour and doggedness,
and Peter’s archaeological sense of England,
and Naomi’s truthfulness, and Laskey’s honesty,
and Sue’s handling of line breaks, and Peter’s
sense of class and economics, and Schuyler’s love
of the present moment, ditto Michel,
and Julia’s resourcefulness, and Cliff’s Cliffness,
and Mandy’s Originality, and Christopher’s gravity,
and Andy’s use of form and vocabulary,
and Raymond’s heartbreaking voice, and Ann’s
getting to that special heartbreaking place
where the words take off and fly,
and Alasdair’s Modernism, and Damian’s inventiveness ,
and David’s heartbreak too, and Anon’s genius
for anonymity, and Mark’s everyday usefulness, and
some of the other poets’ ability to win prizes
would come in handy too, that would be lovely,
and I won’t ask for Fiona because she is special,
and Tomas’s dream-like clarity, and Jaan’s lack of judgement,
and Ashbery’s undercutting of his own project,
and Adrienne’s dismantling of the patriarchy,
and Jean’s riskiness, and Michael’s talent and seriousness,
and Ilhan’s references to stationery products,
and Maura, just an ounce of Maura, God, please,
even a little bit of Sweeney, don’t go overboard, just
a smidgen of that strangeness, do you think you could arrange
it, if you are not too busy, and if we are good (have I
been good?), and if you could spare the time, that would be
great?