tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89696459533221381692024-03-13T12:29:12.443-07:00Poems from The Only IsLois Marie Harrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06023476781530943334noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8969645953322138169.post-30359326885274314992012-02-13T07:10:00.000-08:002013-01-10T10:54:42.253-08:00Lois Marie Harrod's THE ONLY ISLois Marie Harrod's chapbook <i>The Only Is </i>is the winner of the 2012 Tennessee Chapbook Contest sponsored by the journal <a href="http://www.mtsu.edu/english/poemsandplays/">Poems & Plays. </a> Here are two poems:<br />
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<span style="font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Grasshoppers, Peaches<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
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Her farmer man is measuring the grasshoppers this year, the length</div>
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of his ring finger, the joint missing; she is dying of cancer,</div>
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remembering lilacs thick with remission, she couldn’t think then</div>
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and now the dust, another dry summer, her mother’s anklets stained</div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
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with sweat, those brown shoes, clodhoppers</div>
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like bumpy potatoes, tongues shiny under the laces,</div>
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her own tongue, what she wanted to say stopping</div>
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him that first night, trembling, last summer’s peaches </div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
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packed in Mason jars, too far to go to the cellar now, but he–</div>
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he was coming to the room with dry sandwiches </div>
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and a jar of mayonnaise, the room hot and wheezing </div>
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behind the yellow blinds, peaches in the Pyrex dishes</div>
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<o:p> </o:p></div>
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they had used for years, the children far away, speechless,</div>
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just the two of them now, grasshoppers, canned peaches.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">“I once loved a poem more than a person”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>J. D. McClatchy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">And how could I not love it, the poem knowing, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">as I did not, what I desired, the moon <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">slipping into the magnolia like a mourning <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">dove, the sun coming down on the sea–<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">while the man had no tongue and was clumsy <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">with a stylus. But he persevered, scrawling <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">epigrams on his gawky clay, bringing cream<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">and coffee in the morning and soup <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">when I was sick. His mouth made odd little <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">movements when I was sullen and his eyes <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">became green rivers in which I learned <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">to dip. And I knew then that I deserved <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro";">him less than the sad bird and the sun, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">my man who had no art to say my name.<br /> </span><!--EndFragment--> <br />
<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Adobe Garamond Pro"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Times; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Return to www.loismarieharrod.com</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.loismarieharrod.com/">Lois Marie Harrod</a></div>
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Lois Marie Harrodhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06023476781530943334noreply@blogger.com0