The lines here about wild things and the new fence were part of the very first notebook page I filled with Helen’s voice, giddy with the unexpected creative surge flowing through me, but it took over a year for them to slot into a completed poem. I’d try them here, try them there, and always take them back out. Finally, in this poem, they clicked right into place, a perfect fit.
Maria Zoccola on "helen of troy cleans up after the barbecue" |
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"A Q&A with Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet Ted Kooser"
"I think my natural measure is anapestic or dactylic. I call it 'waltz time.' And I love waltzes, especially old back-country waltzes, played by fiddlers like Vassar Clements. Also, behind a lot of my poems is one John Crowe Ransom line, 'Go and tell Robin to bring the girls over from Sweetwater.' So natural, so conversational."
viaTHE POST AND COURIER |
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What Sparks Poetry: Jennifer Chang on Drafts
"In truth, I misremembered the statue, I misrepresent it; in my poem, there is more than one enslaved person at Lincoln’s knees. But this is not the only reason I could not get the draft right. I wanted to capture the feeling of two friends wandering in a city, the ebb and flow of their conversation. Most of all, I wanted the poem to do what letters do: bridge a distance in geography and in time: the future, the past, Washington, D.C., Texas, the thaw that makes some late winter days feel like spring." |
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