Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Pinicchio in Nineveh

Poet Benjamin Myers has taken the story of Pinocchio and the account of Jonah -- remember the whales in the both? -- and written a poem that is both funny and raises larger questions about culture and Christianity. He rather playfully takes one whale story – Monstro in Pinocchio – and confuses it as a child would confuse it. Asked to tell the story of Jonah and the whale, the child in Myers’ poem conflates the whale of Jonah with the whale of Pinocchio. God sends a marionette to Nineveh, with a message to repent or to tell the truth; the child isn’t sure.

To read more about the poem, please see my new post at The Master's Artist. The poem is from Myers' new collection, Elegy for Trains: Poems.

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