Friday, April 13, 2018

Salvage

Earlier this evening, I performed in a concert at the Poetry Foundation, featuring poet laureate Kay Ryan and composer Jeff Beal, who set some of Kay's work in his piece, The Salvage Men. Due to a major event in my life I won't go into, one of her poems resonated with me so much, I cried during her reading:

Salvage

The wreck
is a fact.
The worse
has happened.
The salvage trucks
back in and
the salvage men
begin to sort
and stack,
whistling as
they work.
Thanks be
to God - again -
for extractable elements
which are not
carriers of pain,
for this periodic
table at which
the self-taught
salvagers disassemble
the unthinkable
to the unthought.

I also bought two of her books at the event and had her sign them.


I'm nearly finished with my current reading, so I'll get to these next! I've always found poetry really intimidating (i.e., impossible) to write, but really enjoyable to read.

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