Good news can sometimes come from bad news. My poem, "Naming It," is a Special to The Oregonian today. Last week I learned that it would be printed in The Oregonian, then I learned that the Copy Editor had had to cut it, and just now I heard from the very kind poetry editor, Bt Shaw, (a fine poet) that she had worked to get my poem included on-line. Life is a good deal like this, isn't it? Some pieces of news, or new aspect of your life seems wonderful, then terrible, and then events even out to be more good than bad. The photograph above is Shilshole Bay. Here is to staving off loss by narrowing what we need.
Poetry: 'Naming It'
Published: Monday, October 04, 2010, 1:24 PM Updated: Monday, October 04, 2010, 2:39 PM
Shilshole: the shape in
which the estuary threads
her way inland to Puget Sound;
or -- to pull a thread
through the eye of a bead.
That same sense of direction --
staving off loss
by narrowing what we need.
-- Susan Rich, Seattle
"Naming It" appears in Susan Rich's third poetry collection, "The Alchemist's Kitchen" (White Pine Press; 2010); it also appears in the anthology "Poets of the American West" (Many Voices Press; 2010). Winner of awards from PEN USA, The Times Literary Supplement and Peace Corps Writers, Rich serves on the boards of Crab Creek Review, Floating Bridge Press and Whit Press. As part of the Wordstock Festival, Rich will read Saturday, Oct 9, at 3 p.m. the Oregon Convention Center (777 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.) with Kelli Russell Agodon. For a complete festival schedule, visit wordstockfestival.com.
Congratulations, Susan. I like your poem very much, especially its concluding lines.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Maureen ~ I appreciate your kind words so much
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