It's the last day of February, and we're all plenty sick of winter. Our contributor Kirby Olson, who teaches literature at Suny Delhi, sat down with a group of Andes residents last week at the Andes Round Table to express their feelings for February in poetry, drawing inspiration from poet William Carlos Williams.
In an email to the Watershed Post, Kirby explained how he turned the group's thoughts on February into verse:
"I had them come up with lists of things they saw around here that they didn't think were worthy of poetry. I had crowd-sourced a list of about two hundred things when we were done. This morning I spun it into a poem. If we're going to suffer in February in the Catskills, we might as well do it en masse!"
Here's the poetic result:
CATSKILLS IN FEBRUARY
Trail in the snow to a disintegrating trailer
Dying apple trees near the red barns
A harsh winter day with white outs
Some think it’s time to move on
There’s salt on the roads
A defective toilet flushing constantly
Old Scotch tape stuck on the window
Some think it’s time to move on
I wear a mix of gloves to shovel snow
Then deal with more dirty dishes
I still don’t know what to do w/ last year’s Xmas cards
The snow plow goes by, is it time to move on?
Shoes I never wear pile up, I never fix the uneven picture
The shadow of a tree on muddy snow
Everywhere there are empty houses (snowbirds)
I’m chilled to the bone, it’s time to move on
A moosehead over the fireplace I listen to the fish-tank filter
A rusty pitchfork stands in the mudroom near a dusty encyclopedia
Potholes in the roads, scuffmarks on cherry floors
Tell me about it. It’s time to move on.
The TV clicker in hand I scan the 7 o’clock news
The same complaining whining voices
I look out the corner of my eye at the unopened tax dept. notice
On the screen dead Libyans, the twisted face of the dictator
Spring’s coming & with it the dandelions & compost bucket
Dustballs, hornets’ nests, unknown scat
Let’s see each other soon, how about them Yankees?
What’s not to like? It’s almost Spring.
(With input from Josh Bobley, Sharon Ruetenik, Jack McShane, Laura Battelani, Ria Aron, and several others From Andes RT session, February 23, 2011.)
Photo of slush by Flickr user Sugar Pond.
