MooPig's Poetry Coroner :: Jerry Orbach and the Big Soup Tureen

We will have to buy the Book, but ...  

Retrieved by Pat Darnell and Poetry Coroners

"Actor Jerry Orbach,  died in 2004, but over his lifetime wrote hundreds of poems, including one everyday to his wife, Elaine. During predawn hours before filming, he scribbled on sheets torn from a page-a-day cat calendar. Awakening alone, she found poems by her coffee cup: "I would read and enjoy each one, then toss it into the big soup tureen given to us by producer David Merrick." After years, the tureen overflowed."

"When Jerry Orbach's poems were read at his funeral, several suggested Elaine do a book. Along with biographical chapters, she puts the poetry in context, explaining relationship references and showbiz buzzwords in a marriage memoir many will find appealing."

"The poems are all light verse, and more than a few could be labeled ultralight verse. Orbach had a penchant for playful rhymes, and he could be clever, as in this poem about film locations:

Today I've a pickup at 7:45
in less than a hiccup 
I'm at Riverside Drive! 
Then Zabar's for coffee
and back down to here
on West 52nd, the QE2 pier!

Jerry Orbach might be best remembered for roles such as tough New York detective Lennie Briscoe on "Law and Order" or the man who tries to put Baby in a corner in Dirty Dancing, but who knew that he was such a romantic?

Over the course of their 25-year relationship, Jerry wrote love poems to his wife Elaine. Now they're compiled in 'Remember How I Love You: Love Letters From an Extraordinary Marriage.'

Jerry would leave the short-but-sweet notes next to her coffee cup so that she'd have a "good morning poem" when she woke up.

His tough "Law and Order" shooting schedule often required him to come home when Elaine was asleep, and he'd still be sleeping when she was awake.

When Jerry died in 2004, a family friend asked to read some of the poems at his memorial service, and that's where the idea for the book took shape. It's a collection of the notes and Elaine's memories of life with Jerry.

Elaine passed away earlier this year right after the book was completed.

(Nov. 3, 2009. ebookstore)"