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from the issue of January 10, 2008
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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
I'd guess you've heard it said that the reason we laugh when somebody slips on a banana peel is that we're happy that it didn't happen to us. That kind of happiness may be shameful, but many of us have known it. In the following poem, the California poet, Jackson Wheeler, tells us of a similar experience.
How Good Fortune
Surprises Us
I was hauling freight
out of the Carolinas
up to the Cumberland Plateau
when, in Tennessee, I saw
from the freeway, at 2 am
a house ablaze.
Water from the firehoses arced
into luminescent rainbows.
The only sound, the dull roar
of my truck
passing. I found myself
strangely happy.
It was misfortune
on that cold night
falling on someone's house,
but not mine
not mine.
Poem copyright (c) 2007, by Jackson Wheeler, whose most recent book of poetry is "A Near Country," Solo Press, 1999. Reprinted from "Rivendell," Issue Four, Native Genius, Spring 2007 by permission of the author. Introduction copyright (c) 2007 by The Poetry Foundation. This column is made possible by the Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org) and supported by the UNL Department of English. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
GO TO: ISSUE OF JANUARY 10
ARTS HEADLINES FOR JANUARY 10
Day, students help erect 'Art Farm' exhibition
American Life in Poetry
'Darfur Now' plays the Ross
Faculty exhibit opens Jan. 14
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Jan. 18
Sheldon hosts poetry contest
733051S37737X
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