Untitled Document
backthenpoem #3
my grandpa wrote my
dad
and uncle when they were
away from the farm at
phantom lake y
camp he said
my dear boys I am missing you
greatly not alone because
of
your help with the work but
it is lonesome without you
do you
know that story of
the lad who had been away
from home a few days
and
felt it was years and remarked
well I see you still have
the
same old cat things will be much
the same when you return
we
will have the same old cat
© Jacqueline Jackson 2008
So often, reading a poem can in itself feel like a
thing overheard. Here, Mary-Sherman Willis of Virginia describes the
feeling of being stilled by conversation, in this case barely audible and
nearly indecipherable.
The Laughter of Women
From over the wall I could hear the laughter of women in a foreign tongue, in the sun-rinsed air of the city. They sat (so I thought) perfumed in their hats and their silks,
in chairs on the grass amid flowers glowing and swaying. One spoke and the others rang like bells, oh so witty, like bells till the sound filled up the garden and lifted
like bubbles spilling over the bricks that enclosed them, their happiness holding them, even if just for the moment. Although I did not understand a word they were saying,
their sound surrounded me, fell on my shoulders and hair, and burst on my cheeks like kisses, and continued to fall, holding me there where I stood on the sidewalk listening.
As I could not move, I had to hear them grow silent, and adjust myself to the clouds and the cooling air. The mumble of thunder rumbled out of the wall and the smacking of drops as the rain fell everywhere.
Poem copyright © 2007 by Mary-Sherman Willis.
Reprinted from The Hudson Review (Vol. LX, no. 3, Autumn 2007). American Life in Poetry is
made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also
supported by the Department of English at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln.
Ted Kooser served as the U.S. poet laureate 2004-2006. For more information, go to
www.americanlifeinpoetry.org.
This article appears in Jun 19-25, 2008.
