Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Word from the Corner - Summer in a Small Town - Tony Hoagland




Poetry outdoors this week! This Tuesday, we're going to be at the Stevens Estate at Osgood Hill in North Andover. The theme for this month's open mic is "Summer Stories". You can go a lot of different directions with this one. Bring one of your own or one by a favorite author. We are meeting on the lawn by the big tent at 6PM, we start at 6:30PM. Park in the lot behind the estate.

Here is a summer poem by Tony Hoagland, who passed away last year. He was a great observer, with a wry sense of humor. His poems are worth checking out.

Enjoy summer.

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from "Summer in a Small Town"
BY TONY HOAGLAND

This is the kind of town where the rush hour traffic halts
to let three wild turkeys cross the road,
and when the high school music teacher retires
after thirty years

the movie marquee says, “Thanks Mr. Biddleman!”
and the whole town comes to hear
the tuba solos of old students.

Summer, when the living is easy
and we store up pleasure in our bodies
like fat, like Eskimos,
for the coming season of privation.

All August the Ferris wheel will turn
in the little amusement park,
and screaming teenage girls will jump into the river
with their clothes on,
right next to the No Swimming sign.

Trying to cool the heat inside the small towns
of their bodies,
for which they have no words;
obedient to the voice inside which tells them,
“Now. Steal Pleasure.”


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