JUST WORDS: A review of GOOD POEMS, Selected & Introduced by Garrison Keillor [Penguin
Books, 2002]
I have several books of poems
scattered throughout the house in strategic places, and I read a poem from each
of them each day.
I prefer books that contain
poems from many different writers, rather than a single author, although one or
another of the volumes of Billy Collins is always in my rotation, and usually
another individual writer or two, Ferlinghetti or cummings or Frost.
Perhaps my preference for
multi-author volumes is because the first book of poetry I ever had [and I can’t
remember its provenance] was The Best
Loved Poems of the American People, edited by Hazel Felleman. Each day I heard
a different poetic voice, got a different slant on language and the world.
Reading the same poet each day
can get you into a rhythm, and that is good. However, I still appreciate
getting jarred out of my own ruts each day by having to hear a new rhythm, a
different voice.
I think it was Halford Luccock
who told of the man who loved macaroons. He hid them all over his house. He was
forgetful, so he never remembered where he had hidden them. But every once in a
while, as he rummaged through a drawer or opened a cabinet, he would be
delighted by the appearance of a “macaroon unaware.” That is how I feel about a
book of poetry by different authors.
So one book stays in the
rotation. I finished GOOD POEMS, Selected
& Introduced by Garrison Keillor this morning, “Fishing in the Keep of
Silence,” by Linda Gregg, but it goes back onto the shelf, back into the
rotation, back tomorrow morning to “Poem in Thanks” by Thomas Lux. I look
forward to encountering Jane Kenyon and Wendell Berry and all the others as
they suddenly appear, “macaroons unaware.”
John Robert McFarland
Daughter Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in America will be
published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press, in 2015.
My novel, VETS, will be published by Black Opal Books in early 2015.
In case you missed it, a Tweet Repeat: You never have to
reboot a yellow pad or a ballpoint pen.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in Winter: Reflections on Faith from
a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
MY OTHER BOOKS:
NOW THAT I HAVE
CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life and Healing for Cancer Patients and
Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
AN ORDINARY MAN
[HarperPaperbacks] Randall MacLane just wanted to be an ordinary man. But sent
with a message for Custer, he became a drifting lawman with a knack for
killing, and a deep well of loneliness. Then a twist of fate brought him full
circle…
THE STRANGE
CALLING: Stories of Ministry [Smyth&Helwys] I didn’t want to be a
preacher, but I made a deal with God to save my sister’s life. Was that really
a “call,” though? I said, “I’ll try t for 50 years, and if I still don’t know,
I’ll do something else.” These are stories of what happened in those years of
questioning the call.
WHEN FATHER RODE
THE MAIL and Other Stories of Christmas [lulu.com] ISBN 978-1-300-38566-0
If you like baseball poetry, take a look at “Frosty &
the Babe” http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/frosty_and_the_babe.shtml
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