Thursday, August 16, 2007

what miller learned from monroe

a found poem

[She] taught him to spot an orphan
in a crowded room

to recognize
in [the] eyes

the bottomless loneliness
no parented person can know


Found in Arthur Miller's Missing Act in the September 2007 Vanity Fair. A heartbreaking account of how the playwright Arthur Miller institutionalized his son Daniel, who had Down syndrome, from birth. "She" is Miller's ex-wife, Marilyn Monroe, who was herself raised in foster care.

1 comment:

Eugene Poet said...

Detritus--A greatly tasty site. I came because of the Bloms (excellent photographs of the Jaguar manse--was there in '76 and will be back this August).
Loved the found poetry here too.
About Miller's son Daniel--I've heard the story on a PBS report. It is sad indeed.
But The Misfits with Gable/Monroe/Clift/Wallach/Ritter, directed by John Houston, written by Miller, is a wonderful deconstruction of America. Have you seen it?

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