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from the issue of September 20, 2007
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American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
North Carolina poet, Betty Adcock, has written scores of beautiful poems, almost all of them too long for this space. Here is an example of her shorter work, the telling description of a run-down border town.
Louisiana Line
The wooden scent of wagons,
the sweat of animals - these places
keep everything - breath of the
cotton gin,
black damp floors of the icehouse.
Shadows the color of a mirror's back
break across faces. The luck
is always bad. This light is brittle,
old pale hair kept in a letter.
The wheeze of porch swings
and lopped gates
seeps from new mortar.
Wind from an axe that struck wood
a hundred years ago
lifts the thin flags of the town.
Poem copyright (c) 1975 by Betty Adcock. Reprinted from "Walking Out," Louisiana State University Press, 1975, with permission of Adcock. Introduction copyright (c) 2006 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 SEPTEMBER 20
ARTS HEADLINES FOR SEPTEMBER 20
Award-winning bead exhibit at Hillestad through Sept. 28
American Life in Poetry
Executive Steel Band opens 'Free at 6' series Sept. 25
Gallery dedication Sept. 28
OPENING NIGHT
Sartore to offer Sept. 23 movie talk
'Sex in Heartland' focus of 'Great Plains Great Books' series
Sheldon Poetry Reading Sept. 21
Tango Buenos Aires to play Lied Sept. 21
732939S37326X
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