[Music intro]
LYNNE THOMPSON: Hello! My name is Lynne Thompson, Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles and I’m so happy to welcome listeners to this installment of Poems on Air, a podcast supported by the Los Angeles Public Library. Every week, I’ll present the work of poets I admire, poets who you should know, and poets who have made a substantial and inimitable contribution to the art and craft of poetry.
LYNNE THOMPSON: Last week the country and the world recognized the 20th anniversary of the multiple trage-dies of September 11, 2001. Of course, we continue to recognize that the impact of that day reverberates all these years later. The poet, Andrea Carter Brown, wraps language around that recognition in her latest book September 12. Brown is an L.A.-based poet and editor and the author of three other collections of poetry and she’s the winner of multiple prizes includ-ing one from the Poetry Society of America. Carter serves as the Series Editor for The Wash-ington Prize.
LYNNE THOMPSON: Today’s poem is "The Rock in the Glen" by Andrea Carter Brown.
The Rock in the Glen
Homage to Whitman
Picture a pretty town, peaceful, stately
trees lining its streets, children walking
to school weekday mornings. Picture
cars, bikes, and pedestrians converging
on the two train stations at the same time,
the hurried goodbyes. Picture a quietness
after the commuters leave, the pretty town
like Sleeping Beauty waiting to be kissed
awake when they return. Picture the spill
of play, parties, and gossip across yards
without hedges or fences. Picture a breeze
rustling the oaks and maples, spreading
the news the morning of September 11.
Picture a pretty town brought to its knees.
LYNNE THOMPSON: The Los Angeles Poet Laureate was created as a joint program between the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Public Library and this podcast will be available on the library’s website. In the future, episodes will be available on iTunes, Google, and Spotify. Thanks for listening!
[Music outro]
- Back to Poems on Air: Episode 25
DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding. Transcript provided by the author.