Poetry Daily

Poetry Daily (poems.com) is an online anthology of poetry published by The Daily Poetry Association. A new poem is featured each day chosen from books or journals currently or imminently available in print or online. Today’s poem, for example, is “All the Sciences” by Laura Eve Engel from Black Warrior Review. The site also has a well-organized and accessible system of archives, an iPad/iPhone application, and a Twitter account. Go explore Poetry Daily today!


“My Only Swerving”

As I recently reread William Stafford’s poem “Traveling Through The Dark”, I made the connection between one line and a song title by an electronic group I really like called El Ten Eleven. The title of perhaps the group’s most famous song is a nod to the main guitarist’s favorite poet, William Stafford. Below is the poem and you can hear the song here: 01 My Only Swerving.

Traveling Through The Dark

Traveling through the dark I found a deer
dead on the edge of the Wilson River road.
It is usually best to roll them into the canyon:
that road is narrow; to swerve might make more dead.

By glow of the tail-light I stumbled back of the car
and stood by the heap, a doe, a recent killing;
she had stiffened already, almost cold.
I dragged her off; she was large in the belly.

My fingers touching her side brought me the reason–
her side was warm; her fawn lay there waiting,
alive, still, never to be born.
Beside that mountain road I hesitated.

The car aimed ahead its lowered parking lights;
under the hood purred the steady engine.
I stood in the glare of the warm exhaust turning red;
around our group I could hear the wilderness listen.

I thought hard for us all–my only swerving–,
then pushed her over the edge into the river.

“Traveling through the Dark” was originally published in 1967 by Weatherlight Press as the title poem in the collection of that same name.  Copyright belongs to Stafford’s son, the poet Kim Stafford, a fine writer worth looking up.


Illustration and literature: Can they mix?

We are studying the genre of memoir in my four-person capstone class currently. The course began with Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home—the title ironically encapsulates the story of a dysfunctional family and its funeral home business. The graphic novel is something I have had very little exposure to before reading Fun Home. Perhaps it is due to my constant inclination toward words, but I found myself skimming and sometimes wholly ignoring the illustrations that ran through and around the text.  The multidimensional technique behind Fun Home as well as Howard Cruse’s Stuck Rubber Baby is no doubt laudably crafted and intriguing. The illustrations, however, distract me. They too often make it so that the words are not presented on the page in a discernable order. Dialogue jumps around ambiguously, and there are sometimes a dozen frames of pictures to comprehend. How close of attention should the reader pay to studying the succession of illustrations? What is a good ratio of time spent on the words versus the visual?

As is true of every term as an upper-level English major, my classes have intersected in their content and conversation. In one of our Shenandoah intern meetings we discussed the Virginia Quarterly Review and some of its peculiar facets. What struck me was its incorporation of lots of color, more modern and “hip” typography, pictures, and even comics. A few of my peers voiced opposition to the comics, saying things like they cheapened the review and made it less serious or less academic. I tend to agree with this view. When I read a novel or a literary review, I primarily want words. Occasional photographs and art are wonderful, and can even help transition, set the tone, or change the pace. But I have found I do not mesh well with comics or graphic novels. Maybe a reader like my brother and his Calvin-and-Hobbes-filled childhood would have a different opinion. Or maybe I need more practice and exposure.