Philip Schultz And His Failure Come To The JCOH

Philip Scultz, the oft-lauded American poet and founder of the prestigious, nearly-impossible-to-get-into Writers' Studio, is coming to the Jewish Center of the Hamptons tonight. Schultz will be reading his Pulitzer Prize-winning poem "Failure," a poem somewhat in the vein of Ellen Goodman's "The Company Man," as told from the perspective of the failure's embittered son. "You can't remember a nobody's name/ that's why they're called nobodies/Failures are unforgettable" he tells one of his father's friends as they sit at his father's funeral. For all that, his father comes across as loveably ordinary; "his watches pinched, he tripped on his pant cuffs and snored loudly in movies/ where his weariness overcame him..."

A sad poem, to be sure, but one which is certainly worth reading, or hearing read. If you can't make it tonight, you can here Schultz read it here, otherwise, the show starts at 7:30, and is free and open to the public. [Image via The Villager]