MAYER, Bernadette
Midwinter Day

Perhaps Bernadette Mayer’s greatest work, Midwinter Day was written on December 22, 1978 at 100 Main Street, in Lennox, Massachusetts. “Midwinter Day,” as Alice Notley noted, “is an epic poem about a daily routine.” In six parts, Midwinter Day takes us from awakening and emerging from dreams through the whole day—morning, afternoon, evening, night—to dreams again: “. . . a plain introduction to modes of love and reason / Then to end I guess with love, a method to this winter season / Now I’ve said this love it’s all I can remember / Of Midwinter Day the twenty-second of December.” [publisher's note]

Published by New Directions
Literature