Sharon Olds

The poem you chose to read today is a very interesting poem: Hubris At Zunzal, by Rodney Jones. I
remember how struck I was when I chose this poem myself, as the editor of poetry of this
magazine. I was not completely sure what Zunzal referred to, and I had to look it up, I must
confess, and I discovered it was a beach in El Salvador. So, Hubris At Zunzal, by Rodney Jones, read
by Sharon Olds.

HUBRIS AT ZUNZAL

By Rodney Jones

Nearly sunset, and time on the water

of 1984. Language its tracer.

No image like the image of language.

I had waded out about thigh deep.

Then a shout from the beach.

I held in my hand half a coconut shell

of coconut milk and 150-proof rum

and dumped it white into the waves

when it came on me how sweet it had been,

then the idea I was not finished,

then the act of reaching down

with the idea I would get it back.

Wonderful image of loss, of the impossibility of return, in some sense?

Right… I don’t kow, I connected it with the idea of drinking…… I was thinking of the idea of
addiction, and alcohol, and spilling it and not being able to let it go. So, I was reading it from my
life, rather than from the poet’s life.

And certainly, the speaker dumps it white into the waves, it’s as if it adds to the whiteness of the
waves. Presumably the surf coming in, being reflected there… Any other observations on the 150-
proof rum……..stuff?
I don’t know, I haven’t thought of anything further… So he tells what is and was in his
mind…”when it came down me”… I like that turn, how sweet it had been, and then the repetition
of the idea that the idea was not finished with the act of reaching down with the idea “I would get
it back”.

Is this subject of loss something to which you are particularly close?

Yes, I think so.