4 Min read

Poetry for emergencies

1 Poem

1 Poetry collection

Baltimore & Annapolis

A bit of Harry Potter

A bit of Edgar Allan Poe

US Poet Laureate, Ada Limón 

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AVAILABLE ON PODCAST

ON SPOTIFY

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OMEN. On Gay Street in Baltimore on the way to Johnny’s for dinner, I saw a large woman on the sidewalk, squatting at the wall. She was facing us in a stopped line of cars at the light. No side alley, no portable potty. She dropped her pants with a skill that comes from practice, pressed her back against the brick facade. When she was done her business, she pulled up her stretchy black panties and then her brown shapewear pants, which were wet on her rear. She left a puddle and walked away. Such things cannot be unseen.

RAVEN (1) At Johnny’s, the hostess escorted us through the Harry Potter themed decor to the Ravenclaw room. Turns out the younger patrons dressed in red and gold trimmed robes with wigs and wands prefer Gryffindor. I ordered a Phoenix Feather from the special menu of elixirs and potions. The ginger beer base with lemon and strawberry puree while tasty, did not remind me of Fawkes–Dumbledore’s loyal companion. The blue point banner hung from the banquet island with its luggage assortment of Skele-gro, Free Range Phoenix Tears, Mandrake Root, and Scale of Dragon.

RAVEN (2) I woke early and clipped my nightlight on my book, then read about a raven mangled in the branches of the orange trees, not the Chihuahuan raven or the fan-tailed raven. It was not the common raven with its over four feet wing span–yes that’s the largest perching bird–that was beak to nose with Ada Limón and needed to be untangled from the tree limbs. In Ada’s dream, she writes of this tale, as the US Poet Laureate.

Did you know there is such a post, dear reader, because it was once called the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Limón is serving her second term as the country’s Poet Laureate.

RAVEN (3) Outside my hotel window pirates gather on the dock for a costume cruise on a sailboat, and the Raven sits in the Annapolis Harbor. The luxury yacht charter is “Classically-styled and custom-built as an homage to the beautiful steamships of the 1900s. Raven offers exquisite views of the Chesapeake Bay.” I hear a cawing of birds outside the window.

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My husband asks about Poe to poke fun at me and my ravens, which are everywhere. What other team besides the Baltimore Ravens names its mascot after a literary hero? or antihero, as it may be? At the volleyball match, a friend who attended my wedding, joined us. First time I have seen her in as many years.

Her tee shirt has the name, EDGAR ALLAN POE, written in red, then written below that in orange, then below that in lime, on down, descending into gray. Poe died in Baltimore and she said she visits his grave. I said the churchyard gates were locked when I visited.

Poe and I share a birthday of January 19th, 160 years apart. The young Poe went to West Point for a year, had served in the US Army and attained the rank of Sergeant Major, as an artilleryman and artificer. What’s an artificer? A bomb maker.

Go figure. The father of horror was good at blowing things up.

If I believe in telltale signs, then maybe a potion with ravens or a luxury yacht will transport me from urban defecation, from earthly vulgarities. Or, as in a Poet Laureate’s dream, finally free, a naked child swinging in the wind.

In closing, here is Ada Limon’s poem for you.

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Dream of the Raven

By Ada Limón

When the ten-speed, lightweight bicycle broke down off the highway lined thick with orange trees, I noticed a giant raven’s head protruding from the waxy leaves. The bird was stuck somehow, mangled in the branches, crying out. Wide-eyed, I held the bird’s face close to mine. Beak to nose. Dark brown iris to dark brown iris. Feather to feather. This was not the Chihuahuan raven or the fantailed raven or the common raven. Nothing was common about the way we stared at one another while a stranger untangled the bird’s claws from the tree’s limbs and he, finally free, became a naked child swinging in the wind.

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FOOTNOTES

*The Carrying: Poems a collection by Ada Limón, US Poet Laureate. (Milkweed, 2018). Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. “Her most powerful collection yet.”

Vulnerable, tender, acute, these are serious poems, brave poems, exploring with honesty the ambiguous moment between the rapture of youth and the grace of acceptance. A daughter tends to aging parents. A woman struggles with infertility—“What if, instead of carrying / a child, I am supposed to carry grief?”—and a body seized by pain and vertigo as well as ecstasy. A nation convulses: “Every song of this country / has an unsung third stanza, something brutal.” And still Limón shows us, as ever, the persistence of hunger, love, and joy, the dizzying fullness of our too-short lives. “Fine then, / I’ll take it,” she writes. “I’ll take it all.” [Excerpt from Goodreads]

**Learn more about the luxury yacht charter, Raven.

*US Poet Laureate. History of the Poet Laureate. A Wiki Overview:

The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry is appointed by the Librarian of Congress and usually serves a two-year term. In making the appointment, the Librarian consults with current and former poets laureate and other distinguished personalities in the field.

Currently, the poet laureate receives a $60,000 annual stipend, endowed by a gift from Archer M. Huntington.^[1] On October 3, 1985, the U.S. Congress passed legislation authored by Senator Spark M. Matsunaga of Hawaii changing the title of the position to Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.^[3] The Library minimizes assigned duties, to allow incumbents to pursue their own projects while at the Library. The poet laureate presents an annual lecture and reading of their poetry and usually introduces poets at the Library’s poetry series, the oldest in the Washington area and among the oldest in the United States. This annual series of public poetry and fiction readings, lectures, symposia, and occasional dramatic performances began in the 1940s. Collectively, the poets laureate have brought more than 2,000 poets and authors to the Library to read for the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature.

Each consultant has brought a different emphasis to the position.^[4] Maxine Kumin started a popular series of poetry workshops for women at the Library of Congress. Gwendolyn Brooks met with elementary school students to encourage them to write poetry. Joseph Brodsky initiated the idea of providing poetry in airports, supermarkets, and hotel rooms. Rita Dove, considered the first activist poet laureate, brought together writers to explore the African diaspora through the eyes of its artists, championed children’s poetry and jazz with poetry events and read at the White House during Bill Clinton‘s first state dinner. Robert Hass organized a watershed conference that brought together popular novelists, poets, and storytellers to talk about writing, nature, and community, and co-founded the River of Words K–12 international children’s poetry and art contest.^[5] Robert Pinsky initiated the Favorite Poem Project. Billy Collins’s “Poetry 180” project distributed a poem to all high schools for every day of the school year. These poems were also collected and published in two anthologies.

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