Found poem: letter from my father To the editor of the Beloit Daily News: This note is addressed to the family who discarded their family cat on Colley Road just east of the I-90 underpass. This cat visited all the family farms in our area. Some fed her. She finally found our homestead which is […]
Jacqueline Jackie Jackson
Posted inArts & Culture
just is poem #1 or 1000
a carhit a carhit a carhit a carhit my friendron stoppedat a red lighthe checked outokay at thehospital Icould addphilosophicclichés hereweb of lifeout of theblue left fieldbut you cando that foryourself withno effort
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musicpoem, sort of #1
musicpoem, sort of #1 when we were kids we took our musiclessons in madison every saturday atthe wisconsin school of music a big oldhouse with sound pouring out of every fissure from squeaks squawks scales to csardas and the goldberg variationswhen you entered the house you faced a fireplace never any fire but on themantle […]
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babylon #1
babylon #1 woke up worked drank coffee worked emails phone calls worked rearrangedmanuscript last minute stuff workedworked didn’t think a single thoughtabout you till I was driving late tochurch and the car was flooded withall that baroque music you loved so wellplayed so well it was then I bawled Iremember an oratorio we sang in […]
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First day of spring poem
First day of spring poem My snowdrops are up, shivering, but visited by honeybees, and so I offer you my mother’s love poem to my dad, written in 1924, whiletheir May marriage was pending. Because of Youby Vera Wardner (not yet Dougan) This year, because I know you,Spring is lovelier than it ever was before:The […]
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storypoem #14
in the car the whole family drivingnorth I was eight I discovered a metalwhistle a slush pump by blowing andsliding the plunger up or down one couldmake swooping sounds I soon realizedby stopping on a note then moving theplunger spot to spot one could make tunesI was totally entranced it was one of thoserare moments […]
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rye poem #1
I found an essay my sister wrote when shewas a college freshman her prof must haveasked for an autobiography it is of courseinteresting to me for we shared the samechildhood and some of the same memoriesI find it telling how certain things were strongenough for both of us to have later writtenthem down one such […]
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opera poem #4
just viewed a magnificent aida fromthe met cast of thousands egyptiansets animals no elephants thoughpleated skirts familiar music but Ihave to confess in that final scenewith the lovers radames and aidaentombed beneath the altar amnerisprostrate up top snuffling (the splitset sort of resembles a dollhouse)the pathos is somewhat lost on meI keep hearing mr rosewater […]
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on a monday morning
on a monday morning by John Knoepfle, former poet ofthis column; 91 on Feb. 4 well dear heart what to say this sunshine hour it is a blue sky day the threat of the storm is gone you will be out awhile as I struggle with these lines what happened to ambition the desire to […]
Posted inOpinion
Letters to the Editor 2/6/14
Admission is free to tapings of Mike Pittman’s One Mic Stand Comedy Show, 6 p.m. Feb. 12 and Feb. 26, at Hoogland Center for the Arts. PHOTO BY GINNY LEE LAUGHTER BEST MEDICINE Thank you for your recent article on Mike Pittman’s eclectic life in Springfield in which his ventures have now led him to […]
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family story poem # 23
our family traveled after the waronce gas wasn’t rationed we went toflorida over christmas played on thebeach enroute we slept in those littleseparate tourist cabins that predatemotels mother final-checked the roommy sisters and I had been in found hergood fountain pen under a bed noballpoints in those days for the next20 miles we were berated […]
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My gift
This poem was written by my mother,Vera Wardner Dougan, to my father,for their first Christmas together, 1924. I’m repeating it here, for it is so simple, appropriate and tender. JDJ If I could give to you one only gift To hold forever, in remembrance of meT’would be the peace that enters in the heartWhen love comes there […]
