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| Poetry: American Life in Poetry: Column 110
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by U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006
I've talked a lot in this column about poetry as celebration, about the way in which a poem can make an ordinary experience seem quite special.
Here's the celebration of a moment on a campus somewhere, anywhere. The poet is Juliana Gray, who lives in New York. I especially like the little comic surprise with which it closes.
Summer Downpour on Campus
When clouds turn heavy, rich
and mottled as an oyster bed,
when the temperature drops so fast
that fog conjures itself inside the cars,
as if the parking lots were filled
with row upon row of lovers,
when my umbrella veils my face
and threatens to reverse itself
at every gust of wind, and rain
lashes my legs and the hem of my skirt,
but I am walking to meet a man
who'll buy me coffee and kiss my fingers--
what can be more beautiful, then,
than these boys sprinting through the storm,
laughing, shouldering the rain aside,
running to their dorms, perhaps to class,
carrying, like torches, their useless shoes?
Reprinted from "The Louisville Review," (No. 59, Spring 2006) by permission of
the author. Copyright (c) 2006 by Juliana Gray, whose most recent book of poetry
is "The Man Under My Skin," River City Publishing, 2005. This weekly column is
supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department
of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This column does not accept
unsolicited poetry.
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free
weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this
project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous
presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the
columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text
of the column be reproduced without alteration.
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| Posted on Monday, May 07 @ 00:17:18 EDT by Rose |
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Re: American Life in Poetry: Column 110 (Score: 1)
by Orion on Saturday, May 12 @ 00:41:33 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.todays-woman.net | This is a great poem and I too enjoyed the ending most in this write thanks for sharing it with us.
Steve |
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Re: American Life in Poetry: Column 110 (Score: 1)
by Char on Thursday, May 24 @ 18:21:22 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) | | Is it possible to 'learn' how to write poetry or does it have to be a natural gift from God? |
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