| |
|
|
from the issue of January 17, 2008
|
| |
|
|
| |
American Life in Poetry
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
If one believes television commercials, insomnia, that thief of sleep, torments humans in ever-increasing numbers. Rynn Williams, a poet working in Brooklyn, N.Y., tries here to identify its causes and find a suitable remedy.
Insomnia
I try tearing paper into tiny,
perfect squares -
they cut my fingers. Warm milk,
perhaps,
stirred counter-clockwise
in a cast iron pan -
but even then there's burning
at the edges,
angry foam-hiss. I've been told
to put trumpet flowers under my pillow,
I do: stamen up, the old crone said.
But the pollen stains,
and there are bees,
I swear, in those long yellow chambers,
echoing,
the way the house does, mocking,
with its longevity -
each rib creaking and bending
where I'm likely to break -
I try floating out along the long O
of lone,
to where it flattens to loss,
and just stay there
disconnecting the dots of my night sky
as one would take apart a house
made of sticks,
carefully, last addition to first,
like sheep leaping backward
into their pens.
Poem copyright (c) 2007 by Rynn Williams, whose most recent book of poetry is "Adonis Garage," University of Nebraska Press, 2005. Poem reprinted from "Columbia Poetry Review," no. 20, Spring 2007, by permission of Rynn Williams. 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 17
ARTS HEADLINES FOR JANUARY 17
'Unknown Blakelock' offers grand vision
American Life in Poetry
Comedian performs Jan. 22
Dylan film opens Jan. 18 at the Ross
Great Plains Art Museum features 'Expressions of Prairie Grasses'
Lord at Club/Carson Jan. 25
New book celebrates Whitman's masterpiece
UNL singers, orchestra to perform at Carnegie Hall
White to lead Jan. 23 concert for elementary students
733058S37760X
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|