In the podcast Poetry Unbound, Pádraig Ó Tuama always begins with something like "One of the things I love most about poetry is..." and that thing he loves leads to the encapsulation of the poem he's featuring. With that small bit in mind, we listen to the poem, then he zooms in and deconstructs the meanings and the craft moves in the poem. After he takes you deep inside a poem, you get to hear him read it one more time, and it's almost like hearing a new poem.
Let's try it.
One of the things I love most about poetry is the way it sometimes works like postcards or snapshots from another time. With just a few words, the poet moves us through time and space with their words and images.
SIX WEEKS ONE SUMMER
1985
After the first job,
before the second degree.
Between.
Soundtrack
box of cassette tapes
meadowlark on a fencepost
AM radio
Souvenirs
single finger wave
small town hospitality
sense of direction
1985
After the first job,
before the second degree.
Between.
Blue Highways
South -- tobacco fields
West -- Navajo Nation
North -- regal mountains
South -- tobacco fields
West -- Navajo Nation
North -- regal mountains
Soundtrack
box of cassette tapes
meadowlark on a fencepost
AM radio
Souvenirs
single finger wave
small town hospitality
sense of direction
The longer I've written poetry and read poetry, I realize how often poems are about journeys of one kind or another. One thing that stands out for me about this poem is the stanza titles, which seem almost like notes scrawled on the backs of photos that have been tucked in an album. They also give each stanza a particular job within the poem, first letting the reader know the setting in time and place, then giving sensory details, and ending with a list.
In each of the stanzas, the details are concrete and vivid. Each of the places in the second stanza are iconic to the region, yet one can imagine that experienced from the "Blue Highways" of the stanza's title, they were more than simply stereotypical. The cassette tapes are a reminder that this is 1985, and the meadowlark and AM radio give a sense of the isolation of the journey. In the last stanza, the alliteration serves to stitch the three images together.
The title of the poem, "Six Weeks One Summer," gives one version of the time frame for the poem, while the first stanza pans out to the big picture of the speaker's life trajectory. The second stanza gives a sense of the scope of the journey in the poem. The final stanza brings the reader and the speaker back full circle with the list of souvenirs from the trip. The last line returns the reader's attention to the beginning, where the speaker is in a place "between," and lets the reader know that after six weeks of circling the country, the speaker has gained perspective and a sense of direction.
SIX WEEKS ONE SUMMER
1985
After the first job,
before the second degree.
Between.
Soundtrack
box of cassette tapes
meadowlark on a fencepost
AM radio
Souvenirs
single finger wave
small town hospitality
sense of direction
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020
1985
After the first job,
before the second degree.
Between.
Blue Highways
South -- tobacco fields
West -- Navajo Nation
North -- regal mountains
South -- tobacco fields
West -- Navajo Nation
North -- regal mountains
Soundtrack
box of cassette tapes
meadowlark on a fencepost
AM radio
Souvenirs
single finger wave
small town hospitality
sense of direction
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020
Thank you for "listening" to my Pádraig Ó Tuama-style "podcast" about my poem. Here is the inspiration piece via Amy Souza's Spark project that I was provided for my writing:
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| "Finding Your Way" by Victoria Nessen |
Buffy has this week's Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog Buffy Silverman, and there's ONE spot left on the roundup schedule for the next 6 months.
Happy Poetry! Happy Friday!
