Denise Gess | The Sun Magazine

Denise Gess

Denise Gess is the author of two novels, Good Deeds and Red Whiskey Blues (both Crown). She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

— From June 2007
Essays, Memoirs, & True Stories

The Kitchen Table: An Honest Orgy

The poem is called “The Table,” written by Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade and translated by Elizabeth Bishop. My copy is underlined. When had I inked up the pages, taking note of this line: “Around the wide table . . . It was an honest orgy / ending in revelations”? No words I might struggle to string together this morning will resonate more, and no other object we own tells a story quite the way that kitchen table does.

June 2007
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