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from the issue of June 14, 2007
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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
I've talked a lot in this column about poetry as celebration, about the way in which a poem can make an ordinary experience seem quite special. Here's the celebration of a moment on a campus somewhere, anywhere. The poet is Juliana Gray, who lives in New York. I especially like the little comic surprise with which it closes.
Summer Downpour on Campus
When clouds turn heavy, rich
and mottled as an oyster bed,
when the temperature drops so fast
that fog conjures itself inside the cars,
as if the parking lots were filled
with row upon row of lovers,
when my umbrella veils my face
and threatens to reverse itself
at every gust of wind, and rain
lashes my legs and the hem of my skirt,
but I am walking to meet a man
who'll buy me coffee and
kiss my fingers -
what can be more beautiful, then,
than these boys sprinting through
the storm,
laughing, shouldering the rain aside,
running to their dorms,
perhaps to class,
carrying, like torches, their
useless shoes?
Reprinted from "The Louisville Review," (No. 59, Spring 2006) by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2006 by Juliana Gray, whose most recent book of poetry is "The Man Under My Skin," River City Publishing, 2005. This weekly column is supported by the UNL Department of English, The Poetry Foundation and The Library of Congress. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.
GO TO: ISSUE OF JUNE 14
ARTS HEADLINES FOR JUNE 14
Temple 'Sneak-a-Peek' is June 22
American Life in Poetry
Cornhusker Summer Music Games are July 25
'Everything's Gone Green' at the Ross June 22
'Fountain Frolics' offered Thursdays
Movies on the Green open July 12 with 'Kramer vs. Kramer'
732841S37119X
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