The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Thu 2/5/2009)

[RetroLounge]

Everything We Do

Everything we do is for our first loves
whom we have lost irrevocably
who have married insurance salesmen
and moved to Topeka
and never think of us at all.

We fly planes & design buildings
and write poems
that all say Sally I love you
I'll never love anyone else
Why didn't you know I was going to be a poet?

The walks to school, the kisses in the snow
gather as we dream backwards, sweetness with age:
our legs are young again, our voices
strong and happy, we're not afraid.
We don't know enough to be afraid.

And now
we hold (hidden, hopeless) the hope
that some day
she may fly in our plane
enter our building read our poem

And that night, deep in her dream,
Sally, far in darkness, in Topeka,
with the salesman lying beside her,
will cry out
our unfamiliar name.

Peter Meinke

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Peter Meinke has published seven books of poems in the prestigious Pitt Poetry Series, the most recent being The Contracted World: New & More Selected Poems (2006). His book of short stories, The Piano Tuner (U. of Georgia Press, 1986) received the Flannery O’Connor Award; his second, Unheard Music, was published in 2007 by Jefferson Press, which also reprinted his book about writing, The Shape of Poetry (2008). In addition, he has published two children’s books, a monograph on the poet Howard Nemerov, and seven poetry chapbooks; a bilingual collection of poems, Maples and Orange Trees, was published in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2005. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Atlantic, The New Republic, The New Yorker and dozens of literary magazines; and has received numerous awards, including two NEA Fellowships, three prizes from the Poetry Society of America, two O’Henry Awards, and many others. He directed the Writing Workshop at Eckerd College for several decades, taking early retirement in 1993. Before and since then, he has been writer-in-residence at Hamilton College, Davidson College, the University of Hawaii, the University of North Carolina in Greensboro, Old Dominion University, and other schools. Most recently, he was Distinguished Poet in Residence at Wichita State University (2008). Since 1966, he’s lived in St. Petersburg, Florida, with his wife, the artist Jeanne Clark.


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:hi:

RL

[blueraven95]

1. ...

:wow:


Love this one.


:hi:

[RetroLounge]

6. Yeah, it's spot on and gorgeous...

:hi:

RL

[Chorophyll]

2. I agree with Blueraven 95.

:wow:

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

7. and I with you...

:hi:

RL

[Sky Masterson]

3. Wow.

:applause:

[RetroLounge]

8. 49 posts?

Newbie...

:9

:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. My dear Retro...

Wow...

How did he know?

This is just wonderful!

Thank you...

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

9. ...

:hi:

RL

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. The man has written the truth

:donut: :hi:

[RetroLounge]

10. ...

:hi:

RL