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from the issue of May 5, 2005
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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
EDITOR'S NOTE - This is a column started by U.S. Poet Laureate and UNL professor Ted Kooser, and supported by the Poetry Foundation and the Library of Congress.
Though many of us were taught that poems have hidden meanings that must be discovered and pried out like the meat from walnuts, a poem is not a puzzle, but an experience.
Here David Baker makes a gift to us through his deft description of an ordinary scene. Reading, we accept the experience of a poem and make it a part of our lives, just as we would take in the look of a mountain we passed on a trip.
The poet's use of the words "we" and "neighbors" subtly underline the fact that all of us are members of the human community, much alike, facing the changing seasons togther.
NEIGHBORS IN OCTOBER
All afternoon his tractor pulls a flat wagon
with bales to the barn, then back to the waiting
chopped field. It trails a feather of smoke.
Down the block we bend with the season:
shoes to polish for a big game,
storm windows to batten or patch.
And how like a field is the whole sky now
that the maples have shed their leaves, too.
It makes us believers -- stationed in groups,
leaning on rakes, looking into space. We rub blisters
over billows of leaf smoke. Or stand alone,
bagging gold for the cold days to come.
David Baker's next book, Midwest Eclogue, is forthcoming this fall from W. W. Norton. Neighbors in October is reprinted from The Truth about Small Towns, University of Arkansas Press, 1998. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the UNL Department of English. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
GO TO: ISSUE OF MAY 5
ARTS HEADLINES FOR MAY 5
Jazz in June concerts, market start June 7
American Life in Poetry
Project InSECT
Public Invited to Meet Artists, Purchase Work
'Wrappings: An Art Deco Approach' May 10-27 at Hillestad Gallery
732071S34656X
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