Wayne Miller

The Tightrope Walker

walking across America
on telephone wires will be an important
symbol. Each night, on the living-room TV,

a quick shot of him stepping over
Scranton, Youngstown, Toledo, Joliet
(and a bit of the accompanying commentary).

Near the end, Justine will look out
the window and there he'll be—approaching
her roof—his balancing pole held out

before him like a broken mast. She'll phone
Clarence then—her words streaming
beneath the walker's feet. She'll say

something like: Who'll know if he falls
in Nebraska, or Wyoming—after the news
forgets him? Clarence's reply: Perhaps two lovers

—like us—talking across the country, will hear
a trembling in their voices,
as the quivering wire upsets the birds—

A Response to SRS Post

I Would Like to Describe
by Zbigniew Herbert
I would like to describe the simplest emotion joy or sadness but not as others do reaching for shafts of rain or sun I would like to describe a light which is being born in me but I know it does not resemble any star for it is not so bright not so pure and is uncertain I would like to describe courage without dragging behind me a dusty lion and also anxiety without shaking a glass full of water to put it another way I would give all metaphors in return for one word drawn out of my breast like a rib for one word contained within the boundaries of my skin but apparently this is not possible and just to say - I love I run around like mad picking up handfuls of birds and my tenderness which after all is not made of water asks the water for a face and anger different from fire borrows from it a loquacious tongue so is blurred so is blurred in me what white-haired gentlemen separated once and for all and said this is the subject and this is the object we fall asleep with one hand under our head and with the other in a mound of planets our feet abandon us and taste the earth with their tiny roots which next morning we tear out painfully

blast

in 1914, a modernist movement called "vorticism"  published an avant-garde literary magazine, BLAST. although its life was cut short by WWI, it is one of the more interesting things i've come across (or at least in my 20th century english literature anthology). i think it's inspiring to see that no matter the time or culture, there are always people willing to break the rules and think not only outside the box, but without the box anywhere in sight.

an excerpt from the BLAST manifesto:

"WE ONLY WANT THE WORLD TO LIVE, and to feel it's crude energy flowing through us....The moment a man feels or realizes himself as an artist, he ceases to belong to any milieu or time. Blast is created for this timeless, fundamental Artist that exists in everybody....It is not necessary to be an outcast bohemian, to be unkempt or poor, any more than it is necessary to be rich or handsome, to be an artist. Art is nothing to do with the coat you wear. A top-hat can well hold the Sixtine. A cheap cap could hide the image of Kephren."

norton anthology information and full manifesto

Has

Anyone read Eula Biss's new book yet? I'd love to talk about how she deals with race in it if you have. It's the month, after all.

SUBMIT YOUR WORK!!

What do you think of this poem?

Little White Truck

Because the white truck traveling the span of the Williamsburg Bridge
could be the white fastener traveling the top of a zip-lock bag,
the East River and tugs might be contained without spilling
in today's October light, along with this new spray of trees and
picnic tables which appeared when the industrial tide of Williamsburg
went out. If these could be contained, then likewise the two cyclists,
now dismounted and steadying their bikes as they kiss, and surely
it could hold the music they heard last night eddying again
around their thoughts, and the memory of their first idea of the
future, loosed when he held her in a doorway lit by cobwebs of spring rain.

Inaugurated by the Academy in April 1996, National Poetry Month brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools, and poets around the country to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture. Thousands of businesses and non-profit organizations participate through readings, festivals, book displays, workshops, and other events.

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41

The 2009 National Poetry Month poster, designed by Paul Sahre.