"Home Fire"

American Life in Poetry: Column 092

By Ted Kooser,
U.S. poet laureate, 2004-2006

Home is where the heart. . . Well, surely we all know that old saying. But it’s the particulars of a home that make it ours. Here the poet Linda Parsons Marion, who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, celebrates familiarity, in its detail and its richness.

Home Fire

Whether on the boulevard or gravel backroad,
I do not easily raise my hand to those who toss
up theirs in anonymous hello, merely to say
“I’m passing this way.” Once out of shyness, now
reluctance to tip my hand, I admire the shrubbery
instead. I’ve learned where the lines are drawn
and keep the privet well trimmed. I left one house
with toys on the floor for another with quiet rugs
and a bed where the moon comes in. I’ve thrown
myself at men in black turtlenecks only to find
that home is best after all. Home where I sit
in the glider, knowing it needs oil, like my own
rusty joints. Where I coax blackberry to dogwood
and winter to harvest, where my table is clothed
in light. Home where I walk out on the thin page
of night, without waving or giving myself away,
and return with my words burning like fire in the grate.

Reprinted from “Home Fires: Poems,” Sow’s Ear Press, 1997, by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 1997 by Linda Parsons. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.

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Wiki Wednesday: Simple Simon (Musical)!

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. Click on “Random article” in the left-hand sidebar box.
3. Post it!

Simple Simon was a Broadway musical with book by Guy Bolton, and Ed Wynn, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, music by Richard Rodgers, produced by Florenz Ziegfeld, and starring Ed Wynn.

It originally played from February 18, 1930 to June 14, 1930 at the Ziegfeld Theatre, then reopened on March 9, 1931 at the Majestic Theatre.

The play, a loose plot designed to show off Ed Wynn’s fumbling, clowning, punning style, cast him as a newspaper vendor who spends his time in a fairy-tale land where bad news doesn’t exist. The song “Ten Cents A Dance” was introduced by Ruth Etting in this show. “Love Me Or Leave Me” by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson wa interpolated into the show about two months after it opened.

“Dancing On The Ceiling”, cut during the Broadway previews, was eventually sung by Jessie Matthews in the London production of Ever Green, and became a standard.

Wiki Wednesday is a little something started by Verbatim.

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Best Husband Ever.

Rockford gives wonderful gifts. As much as I love being the recipient of his thoughtfulness, I always feel bad on gifting occasions because he showers me with presents he’s spent months picking out and I inevitably end up giving him a pair of jeans and a DVD or a pack of new socks and a CD.

This year, I wanted to do better. So I thought and thought, and I shopped early, and I got him an iPod. I was thrilled. “No way,” I thought, “will he top this.”

So what does he do? He tops it. (Not that I’m complaining.)

It was a very, very long day of gifting around these parts. There are four little bits here for the holidays, so we took frequent breaks for snacks, naps and meals. We finally reached the end of the pile about 30 minutes ago.

I thought I was done. And here comes Rockford, with a plain white envelope. I opened it and pulled out a plain white sheet of paper, with one sentence written on it: “Say ‘Hello’ to Amy for me.”

And I didn’t get it. I said so. And Rockford said, “You fly to Kansas City on …” and that was all I heard because I was too busy trying not to cry to listen to the specifics.

I’ve been lonely since we moved to Ruraltown, USA. I don’t make friends easily, and it makes it that much harder to meet people when you live 20 minutes away from everything. I miss my friends. I can’t wait to see them.

I love my husband so much.

Thanks, Rockford.