Patrick O'Neill is an English professor at Gogebic Community College in Ironwood, Michigan. He read from his newest book Deciduous March 19, 2009 at Nora's Red Carpet Lounge in Hurley, Wisconsin.
He also read from unpublished works.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Patrick O'Neill
Patrick O'Neill is an English professor at Gogebic Community College in Ironwood, Michigan. He read from his newest book Deciduous March 19, 2009 at Nora's Red Carpet Lounge in Hurley, Wisconsin.
He also read from unpublished works.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
American Life in Poetry: Column 208
Welcome to American Life in Poetry. For information on permissions and usage, or to download a PDF version of the column, visit www.americanlifeinpoetry.org.
******************************
American Life in Poetry: Column 208
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
To have a helpful companion as you travel through life is a marvelous gift. This poem by Gerald Fleming, a long-time teacher in the San Francisco public schools, celebrates just such a relationship.
Long Marriage
You're worried, so you wake her
& you talk into the dark:
Do you think I have cancer, you
say, or Were there worms
in that meat, or Do you think
our son is OK, and it's
wonderful, really--almost
ceremonial as you feel
the vessel of your worry pass
miraculously from you to her--
Gee, the rain sounds so beautiful,
you say--I'm going back to sleep.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c)2005 by Gerald Fleming. Reprinted from "Swimmer Climbing onto Shore," by Gerald Fleming, Sixteen Rivers Press, San Francisco, 2005, by permission of the author. Introduction copyright (c) 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
******************************
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
******************************
American Life in Poetry: Column 208
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
To have a helpful companion as you travel through life is a marvelous gift. This poem by Gerald Fleming, a long-time teacher in the San Francisco public schools, celebrates just such a relationship.
Long Marriage
You're worried, so you wake her
& you talk into the dark:
Do you think I have cancer, you
say, or Were there worms
in that meat, or Do you think
our son is OK, and it's
wonderful, really--almost
ceremonial as you feel
the vessel of your worry pass
miraculously from you to her--
Gee, the rain sounds so beautiful,
you say--I'm going back to sleep.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c)2005 by Gerald Fleming. Reprinted from "Swimmer Climbing onto Shore," by Gerald Fleming, Sixteen Rivers Press, San Francisco, 2005, by permission of the author. Introduction copyright (c) 2009 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
******************************
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Ojibewegan:A Community Writing Group
Ojibewegan:A Community Writing Group
-share family stories and personal journeys
-craft a written record through poetry
-experience the works of contemporary Ojibwe poets
When: Tuedays from 2:00-4:00 p.m. beginning April 14-May 5
Where: Bad River Elderly Nutrition Center
Who: All community members, family and friends are invited
Refreshments will be served. Hope to see you there!
The writing group is FREE
and funded by the Woodrow Hall Jumpstart Award
Group facilitator is Jan Chronister, English instructor at LCOOCC Bad River Outreach Site.Please direct questions to Sandy Corbine at the Bad River Elderly Nutrition Center, (715) 682-7150 or Jan at janchronister@yahoo.com
-share family stories and personal journeys
-craft a written record through poetry
-experience the works of contemporary Ojibwe poets
When: Tuedays from 2:00-4:00 p.m. beginning April 14-May 5
Where: Bad River Elderly Nutrition Center
Who: All community members, family and friends are invited
Refreshments will be served. Hope to see you there!
The writing group is FREE
and funded by the Woodrow Hall Jumpstart Award
Group facilitator is Jan Chronister, English instructor at LCOOCC Bad River Outreach Site.Please direct questions to Sandy Corbine at the Bad River Elderly Nutrition Center, (715) 682-7150 or Jan at janchronister@yahoo.com
Sunday, January 11, 2009
"A change in the weather is known to be extreme
But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream?"_Bob Dylan, from "You're a Big Girl Now.
Dylan had a way with words, we all know that, but did he predict climate change?
Probably not consciously, but the evidence that something is changing is quite obvious -- even to the amateur naturalist.
Droughts come and go. Weather warms and cools in cycles. It always has. But obviously something’s happening with the climate .."You don't need a weather man..." as Dylan also sang in a more popular lyric.
Ask anyone who's out in the woods or on the big lake if they've ever seen anything like this: Shoals popping up where you used to sail over with no concerns for your keel. Try to dig lately last summer? Dry dirt (red clay) for several feet down even in the late spring.
Global warming. It’s everywhere. According to climate scientists, last year was the warmest year on average throughout the United States in more than 100 years in 48 states. Furthermore, the last nine years have all compared with last year in average temperature, they just didn’t peak quite as high.
For us lay people, that means it’s hot.
Up until the late 1980s, the record temperature of a high-altitude town in Colorado called Fairplay was 79. The town most recently made famous by South Park is at almost 10,000 feet above sea level. But a few years ago, the high temp topped 80 and above. Since then, the little town atop the Rocky Mountains has experienced several days in the 80s.
As a Scout decades ago, I remember camping up north here and experiencing cool weather every morning during any month of the year. It was never hot, in fact we didn't spend much time in the water -- even in the inland lakes -- because we just didn't need to go in to cool off. It just wasn't that warm.
Ask that old farmer who used to plant cool weather seed crops about the weather. Now he's buying corn seed and planting it, not to eat, but as a cash crop for bio-fuels.
Other seed crops are also being considered to fuel vehicles too, and start-up efforts to develop these innovative alternative fuel centers have been popping up north here for the last few years. A small-scale center is even being considered for the Ashland area.
Whether you call it global warming or climate change or whatever -- predicting the weather has gone mainstream.
Even as early as the 70s, a small group of scientists had been predicting global warming. Few, unfortunately, believed them. Some even considered these people out of touch with reality; the rest ignored their findings and considered the idea that humans could actually change weather patterns significantly as radical or far-fetched.
The reality is, however, that climate change is progressing faster than even many of those scientists thought it would. We’ve all heard reports about melting glaciers and icebergs, but take a look around at our own backyard.
Local indications of climate change are just as convincing.
Right here in Ashland, the pilings of the former oredocks have always stuck out of the water, but more and more of them are becoming visible. The water at the beaches in Lake Superior is bearable during more of the summer,.
Last summer the temperature soared in the 100’s more than a couple times. Many summer evenings, which once were always cool, are often warm. No one used to have air conditioning in the northwoods; now it’s standard in new spec home construction to install central air.
Even the Lake Carriers' Association out of Cleveland blames falling water levels of the Great Lakes, along with a "lack of adequate dredging," as a leading factor as to why shipments of cargo on the Great Lakes fell almost a third from last year at this time. And although that speaks more about the present drought, it could very well indicate a trend, and even worsen if the weather doesn't get back to normal.
Right here in Ashland, the pilings of the former oredocks have always stuck out of the water, but more and more of them are becoming visible.
Today, few well-versed scientists doubt we aren't changing the weather at a very fast rate. The popularity of Al Gore's award-winning movie "An Inconvenient Truth," indicates a popular attraction to the idea that we are indeed warming the planet through emissions of carbon dioxide.
So maybe Dylan was a little ahead of his time. Speaking of Dylan, there’s throwing another birthday bash for him up in Hibbing, Minn. in May again.
But what's the sense of changing horses in midstream?"_Bob Dylan, from "You're a Big Girl Now.
Dylan had a way with words, we all know that, but did he predict climate change?
Probably not consciously, but the evidence that something is changing is quite obvious -- even to the amateur naturalist.
Droughts come and go. Weather warms and cools in cycles. It always has. But obviously something’s happening with the climate .."You don't need a weather man..." as Dylan also sang in a more popular lyric.
Ask anyone who's out in the woods or on the big lake if they've ever seen anything like this: Shoals popping up where you used to sail over with no concerns for your keel. Try to dig lately last summer? Dry dirt (red clay) for several feet down even in the late spring.
Global warming. It’s everywhere. According to climate scientists, last year was the warmest year on average throughout the United States in more than 100 years in 48 states. Furthermore, the last nine years have all compared with last year in average temperature, they just didn’t peak quite as high.
For us lay people, that means it’s hot.
Up until the late 1980s, the record temperature of a high-altitude town in Colorado called Fairplay was 79. The town most recently made famous by South Park is at almost 10,000 feet above sea level. But a few years ago, the high temp topped 80 and above. Since then, the little town atop the Rocky Mountains has experienced several days in the 80s.
As a Scout decades ago, I remember camping up north here and experiencing cool weather every morning during any month of the year. It was never hot, in fact we didn't spend much time in the water -- even in the inland lakes -- because we just didn't need to go in to cool off. It just wasn't that warm.
Ask that old farmer who used to plant cool weather seed crops about the weather. Now he's buying corn seed and planting it, not to eat, but as a cash crop for bio-fuels.
Other seed crops are also being considered to fuel vehicles too, and start-up efforts to develop these innovative alternative fuel centers have been popping up north here for the last few years. A small-scale center is even being considered for the Ashland area.
Whether you call it global warming or climate change or whatever -- predicting the weather has gone mainstream.
Even as early as the 70s, a small group of scientists had been predicting global warming. Few, unfortunately, believed them. Some even considered these people out of touch with reality; the rest ignored their findings and considered the idea that humans could actually change weather patterns significantly as radical or far-fetched.
The reality is, however, that climate change is progressing faster than even many of those scientists thought it would. We’ve all heard reports about melting glaciers and icebergs, but take a look around at our own backyard.
Local indications of climate change are just as convincing.
Right here in Ashland, the pilings of the former oredocks have always stuck out of the water, but more and more of them are becoming visible. The water at the beaches in Lake Superior is bearable during more of the summer,.
Last summer the temperature soared in the 100’s more than a couple times. Many summer evenings, which once were always cool, are often warm. No one used to have air conditioning in the northwoods; now it’s standard in new spec home construction to install central air.
Even the Lake Carriers' Association out of Cleveland blames falling water levels of the Great Lakes, along with a "lack of adequate dredging," as a leading factor as to why shipments of cargo on the Great Lakes fell almost a third from last year at this time. And although that speaks more about the present drought, it could very well indicate a trend, and even worsen if the weather doesn't get back to normal.
Right here in Ashland, the pilings of the former oredocks have always stuck out of the water, but more and more of them are becoming visible.
Today, few well-versed scientists doubt we aren't changing the weather at a very fast rate. The popularity of Al Gore's award-winning movie "An Inconvenient Truth," indicates a popular attraction to the idea that we are indeed warming the planet through emissions of carbon dioxide.
So maybe Dylan was a little ahead of his time. Speaking of Dylan, there’s throwing another birthday bash for him up in Hibbing, Minn. in May again.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
World Religions' at Harvard Extension College, its benefits and challenges
By Eric Hjerstedt Sharp
Last year, my eyes caught an announcement of the Religion Newswriters Association on the newsroom bulletin board at the Daily Globe. Ironwood, Mich., advertising a scholarship through the RNA. It didn’t take me long after reading the requirements and aims to determine I would be applying for the scholarship.
As a reporter, staff writer and editor at various newspapers throughout the Midwestern and Western United State at different times from the 1970s through the present, I had come in contact with various assignments and beats that involved religion in various degrees. From writing obituaries, religious holiday stories and interviewing ministers and priests; I often had the chance to write about the plethora of religious experience in this country.
Even more relevant, was the broad array of stories that involved poverty, politics and other general assignments that had indirect religious overtones. Human interest stories often have religious factors to them.
Religion is a subject that interests me because it underlies human interactions and often mediates social realities. Unfortunately, it also too often perpetuates the status qua as well; such as a justification of slavery or the Trail of Tears the Cherokees endured in the 1830s.
After a look at the RNA Web site, the first challenge at hand was choosing the institution of higher learning I would attend. Already having a bachelor’s of arts from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colo., I determined that I would attend some school that offered graduate level courses. Although not necessary for the general assignment reporter, a master’s degree was something I always wanted but had pretty much ruled out unless I could somehow attend classes after retirement. At 57 years old, I had pretty much been resolved that a graduate degree was not in the cards for this writer. After all, if there is any profession where academics is not stressed it is journalism. At just about every newspaper or publication I had worked at, there was always someone who didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree, and I can’t recall any paper I had worked on where there was someone with a master’s or doctorate.
I determined after talking with staff at RNA that it would be possible to finish many of the requirements of a master’s degree by taking religion classes at virtually any university or college. And even if I didn’t take more than one course, I could determine if a master’s was something I wanted to pursue. Having been away from academics for more than a quarter century, I had little idea if I could withstand the rigors of a graduate level course, much less a graduate program. But I wanted to give it a try.
Since the enrollment in any class was in no way mandatory I decided to challenge myself and I narrowed my search down to two schools: Oxford University and Harvard Extension College, both that were offered an excellent online program. My reasoning was thus: both colleges had long held my respect and awe.
My approach to writing, even journalism, has always been academic. As Philip Graham said, “Journalism is the rough draft to history,” and I have always felt a responsibility to future academics to write not only accurately, but about relevant topics that will have meaning in the not-so-distant and even distant future.
Oxford has always held my highest esteem. The Oxford English Dictionary is my dictionary of choice if I am writing academically or about words. But it was the quality of it wordists that determined Harvard to be my choice.
At Harvard Extension College, I took the same class that was held at Harvard University, and even attended it in real time with my Cambridge, Mass.-classmates.
My avocation since graduating from UNC has been poetry. And as a poet-journalist-event organizer, I have always adhered to Ezra Pound’s proclamation that “Poetry is news that stays news.” Although such notable contemporary poets such as Donald Hall, Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Robert Bly and dozens of other went to Harvard, it was my fondness and respect from childhood of the writings of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson that finally attracted me to enroll at the Harvard Extension College.
After all, I could go anywhere and why not challenge myself. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
To say graduate work at Harvard (along with my editorial duties at Daily Globe) for me was grueling would be an understatement … a vast understatement. Fortunately, I have a hard-nosed, gruff, task managing editor at the Globe who I have learned more from in two years than my previous editors throughout my career.
At most of the weeklies I worked at, I was either an associate editor or news editor, so I had it pretty easy … which was not as good for preparation for a hard-hitting newspaper as the Globe. As a junior and senior in high school, I regularly read two newspapers: The Daily Globe and The New York Times at the library at A.D. Johnston High School in Bessemer, six miles east of Ironwood Michigan.
The Globe has always been known for its investigative reporting. The Gogebic Range where it is located is a depressed area once one of the world’s leading iron mining regions. It was connected by dozens of railroad tracks to the iron ore docks in nearby Ashland, Wis., where they are now preparing to tear down the last of the gigantic ore docks that would take the iron out of the range through the Soo Locks on the eastern edge of Lake Superior. From there, it would go either south to the steel mills of Gary south of Chicago or east to Cleveland and Pittsburg or further east out the Saint Lawrence Seaway to China … which is where most of the taconite pellets head these days.
The benefits of my course in World Religions were many. The course covered the world’s religions and spirituality belief systems in 10 short weeks. Since taking the course, I had the opportunity of writing about someone finding a Torah in a warehouse that used to be used in a synagogue in the Ironwood-Hurley area. Being brought up protestant in Wisconsin, my knowledge of Jewish law was very limited. The story would have been too daunting, or I would have failed to see the significance of finding the scroll without the background I gained with my professor and the online class at Harvard.
Religion is an important element in the lives of people of the Gogebic Range. Far from being homogenous, the predominant nationalities are Italians (Roman Catholic) and Finnish (Lutheran). But within 100 miles, there are more than six Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian Reservations. In addition, there are literally dozens of other nationalities and belief systems; including earth-centered religions, Universalist Unitarians, United Methodist and the other Protestant sects, Mormonism and many of the other denominations and sects. In not so close proximity, but of importance economically and politically; Detroit, of course, one the largest Muslim contingency in the United States exits.
So, yes, the course had an enormous impact on me and was a life-changing event for me. Without reviewing the vast information and knowledge gathered in the short time I was enrolled, I can say it was the most challenging, interesting and compelling course I have ever taken.
The online infrastructure at Harvard is superb. The teleconference each week to the classroom within Harvard Square was outstanding, and with the sound and PowerPoint capabilities of the program, in many ways it was better than being there. Unfortunately, my work schedule prevented me from using -- as much as I would have liked to -- the writer’s workshop and other Harvard amenities I had available at my finger tips.
In addition, financial and health hardships halfway through the course, almost caused me to drop out. I went from a high B during mid terms to a C after finals; but I did pass with a C. Even with the workload at the Globe and the monetary pressures I encountered; I am still am very honored to have participated in the Eli Lilly Scholarship through Religion Newswriters Association. Although my early enthusiasm for possibly entering the graduate program at Harvard has waned, having experienced the absolute brutal academic regimen that it is; I would gladly continue my studies through Religion Newswriters Association.
I would do it a lot differently, though; which is the subject of another essay.
Last year, my eyes caught an announcement of the Religion Newswriters Association on the newsroom bulletin board at the Daily Globe. Ironwood, Mich., advertising a scholarship through the RNA. It didn’t take me long after reading the requirements and aims to determine I would be applying for the scholarship.
As a reporter, staff writer and editor at various newspapers throughout the Midwestern and Western United State at different times from the 1970s through the present, I had come in contact with various assignments and beats that involved religion in various degrees. From writing obituaries, religious holiday stories and interviewing ministers and priests; I often had the chance to write about the plethora of religious experience in this country.
Even more relevant, was the broad array of stories that involved poverty, politics and other general assignments that had indirect religious overtones. Human interest stories often have religious factors to them.
Religion is a subject that interests me because it underlies human interactions and often mediates social realities. Unfortunately, it also too often perpetuates the status qua as well; such as a justification of slavery or the Trail of Tears the Cherokees endured in the 1830s.
After a look at the RNA Web site, the first challenge at hand was choosing the institution of higher learning I would attend. Already having a bachelor’s of arts from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colo., I determined that I would attend some school that offered graduate level courses. Although not necessary for the general assignment reporter, a master’s degree was something I always wanted but had pretty much ruled out unless I could somehow attend classes after retirement. At 57 years old, I had pretty much been resolved that a graduate degree was not in the cards for this writer. After all, if there is any profession where academics is not stressed it is journalism. At just about every newspaper or publication I had worked at, there was always someone who didn’t even have a bachelor’s degree, and I can’t recall any paper I had worked on where there was someone with a master’s or doctorate.
I determined after talking with staff at RNA that it would be possible to finish many of the requirements of a master’s degree by taking religion classes at virtually any university or college. And even if I didn’t take more than one course, I could determine if a master’s was something I wanted to pursue. Having been away from academics for more than a quarter century, I had little idea if I could withstand the rigors of a graduate level course, much less a graduate program. But I wanted to give it a try.
Since the enrollment in any class was in no way mandatory I decided to challenge myself and I narrowed my search down to two schools: Oxford University and Harvard Extension College, both that were offered an excellent online program. My reasoning was thus: both colleges had long held my respect and awe.
My approach to writing, even journalism, has always been academic. As Philip Graham said, “Journalism is the rough draft to history,” and I have always felt a responsibility to future academics to write not only accurately, but about relevant topics that will have meaning in the not-so-distant and even distant future.
Oxford has always held my highest esteem. The Oxford English Dictionary is my dictionary of choice if I am writing academically or about words. But it was the quality of it wordists that determined Harvard to be my choice.
At Harvard Extension College, I took the same class that was held at Harvard University, and even attended it in real time with my Cambridge, Mass.-classmates.
My avocation since graduating from UNC has been poetry. And as a poet-journalist-event organizer, I have always adhered to Ezra Pound’s proclamation that “Poetry is news that stays news.” Although such notable contemporary poets such as Donald Hall, Kenneth Koch, John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara, Robert Bly and dozens of other went to Harvard, it was my fondness and respect from childhood of the writings of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson that finally attracted me to enroll at the Harvard Extension College.
After all, I could go anywhere and why not challenge myself. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
To say graduate work at Harvard (along with my editorial duties at Daily Globe) for me was grueling would be an understatement … a vast understatement. Fortunately, I have a hard-nosed, gruff, task managing editor at the Globe who I have learned more from in two years than my previous editors throughout my career.
At most of the weeklies I worked at, I was either an associate editor or news editor, so I had it pretty easy … which was not as good for preparation for a hard-hitting newspaper as the Globe. As a junior and senior in high school, I regularly read two newspapers: The Daily Globe and The New York Times at the library at A.D. Johnston High School in Bessemer, six miles east of Ironwood Michigan.
The Globe has always been known for its investigative reporting. The Gogebic Range where it is located is a depressed area once one of the world’s leading iron mining regions. It was connected by dozens of railroad tracks to the iron ore docks in nearby Ashland, Wis., where they are now preparing to tear down the last of the gigantic ore docks that would take the iron out of the range through the Soo Locks on the eastern edge of Lake Superior. From there, it would go either south to the steel mills of Gary south of Chicago or east to Cleveland and Pittsburg or further east out the Saint Lawrence Seaway to China … which is where most of the taconite pellets head these days.
The benefits of my course in World Religions were many. The course covered the world’s religions and spirituality belief systems in 10 short weeks. Since taking the course, I had the opportunity of writing about someone finding a Torah in a warehouse that used to be used in a synagogue in the Ironwood-Hurley area. Being brought up protestant in Wisconsin, my knowledge of Jewish law was very limited. The story would have been too daunting, or I would have failed to see the significance of finding the scroll without the background I gained with my professor and the online class at Harvard.
Religion is an important element in the lives of people of the Gogebic Range. Far from being homogenous, the predominant nationalities are Italians (Roman Catholic) and Finnish (Lutheran). But within 100 miles, there are more than six Ojibwa (Chippewa) Indian Reservations. In addition, there are literally dozens of other nationalities and belief systems; including earth-centered religions, Universalist Unitarians, United Methodist and the other Protestant sects, Mormonism and many of the other denominations and sects. In not so close proximity, but of importance economically and politically; Detroit, of course, one the largest Muslim contingency in the United States exits.
So, yes, the course had an enormous impact on me and was a life-changing event for me. Without reviewing the vast information and knowledge gathered in the short time I was enrolled, I can say it was the most challenging, interesting and compelling course I have ever taken.
The online infrastructure at Harvard is superb. The teleconference each week to the classroom within Harvard Square was outstanding, and with the sound and PowerPoint capabilities of the program, in many ways it was better than being there. Unfortunately, my work schedule prevented me from using -- as much as I would have liked to -- the writer’s workshop and other Harvard amenities I had available at my finger tips.
In addition, financial and health hardships halfway through the course, almost caused me to drop out. I went from a high B during mid terms to a C after finals; but I did pass with a C. Even with the workload at the Globe and the monetary pressures I encountered; I am still am very honored to have participated in the Eli Lilly Scholarship through Religion Newswriters Association. Although my early enthusiasm for possibly entering the graduate program at Harvard has waned, having experienced the absolute brutal academic regimen that it is; I would gladly continue my studies through Religion Newswriters Association.
I would do it a lot differently, though; which is the subject of another essay.
Friday, July 18, 2008
American Life in Poetry:
Column 173
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
Poets are especially good at investing objects with meaning, or in drawing meaning from the things of this world. Here Patrick Phillips of Brooklyn, New York, does a masterful job of comparing a wrecked piano to his feelings.
Piano
Touched by your goodness, I am like
that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby
that someone had smashed and somehow
heaved through an open window.
And you might think by this I mean I'm broken
or abandoned, or unloved. Truth is, I don't
know exactly what I am, any more
than the wreckage in the alley knows
it's a piano, filling with trash and yellow leaves.
Maybe I'm all that's left of what I was.
But touching me, I know, you are the good
breeze blowing across its rusted strings.
What would you call that feeling when the wood,
even with its cracked harp, starts to sing?
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 2008 by Patrick Phillips. Reprinted from his most recent book of poetry, "Boy," University of Georgia Press, 2008, by permission of Patrick Phillips. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
******************************
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
Poets are especially good at investing objects with meaning, or in drawing meaning from the things of this world. Here Patrick Phillips of Brooklyn, New York, does a masterful job of comparing a wrecked piano to his feelings.
Piano
Touched by your goodness, I am like
that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby
that someone had smashed and somehow
heaved through an open window.
And you might think by this I mean I'm broken
or abandoned, or unloved. Truth is, I don't
know exactly what I am, any more
than the wreckage in the alley knows
it's a piano, filling with trash and yellow leaves.
Maybe I'm all that's left of what I was.
But touching me, I know, you are the good
breeze blowing across its rusted strings.
What would you call that feeling when the wood,
even with its cracked harp, starts to sing?
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 2008 by Patrick Phillips. Reprinted from his most recent book of poetry, "Boy," University of Georgia Press, 2008, by permission of Patrick Phillips. Introduction copyright (c) 2008 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.
******************************
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
