Thursday, April 24, 2003
The End and the Beginning
Wislawa Szymborska
After every war
someone has to clean up.
Things won't
straighten themselves up, after all.
Someone has to push the rubble
to the side of the road,
so the corpse-filled wagons
can pass.
Someone has to get mired
in scum and ashes,
sofa springs,
splintered glass,
and bloody rags.
Someone has to drag in a girder
to prop up a wall,
Someone has to glaze a window,
rehang a door.
Photogenic it's not,
and takes years.
All the cameras have left
for another war.
We'll need the bridges back,
and new railway stations.
Sleeves will go ragged
from rolling them up.
Someone, broom in hand,
still recalls the way it was.
Someone else listens
and nods with unsevered head.
But already there are those nearby
starting to mill about
who will find it dull.
From out of the bushes
sometimes someone still unearths
rusted-out arguments
and carries them to the garbage pile.
Those who knew
what was going on here
must make way for
those who know little.
And less than little.
And finally as little as nothing.
In the grass that has overgrown
causes and effects,
someone must be stretched out
blade of grass in his mouth
gazing at the clouds.
. . .
The first ever conference of poets laureate will take place this weekend in New Hampshire.
. . .
United States Poet Laureate Billy Collins' plan to bring poetry to high school students: Poetry 180.
. . .
Sunday, April 20, 2003
Brian Lampkin on WBFO.
Brian is just about the only person who writes political poetry I truly adore. Brian & I went together to WBFO with the baby twins to record our poems. We traded off the girls while each recorded. Everyone assumed I was the mom. When that got clarified, everyone assumed Brian just had them for the day. Brian has them every day, and he is wonderful. He's also a passionate and intelligent writer. Go listen.
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