American Life in Poetry: Column 537

American Life in Poetry: Column 537
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE
One of the first uses of language must surely have been to tell others what happened beyond the firelight, out
in the forest. And poems that do just that seem wonderfully natural and human to me. Here’s Anya Krugovoy
Silver telling us something that happened far from home. She lives and teaches in Georgia.
Doing Laundry In Budapest
The dryer, uniform and squat as a biscuit tin,
came to life and turned on me its insect eye.
My tshirts
and underwear crackled and leapt.
I was a tourist there; I didn’t speak the language.
My shoulders covered themselves up in churches,
my tongue soothed its burn with slices of pickle.
More I don’t remember: only, weekends now
when I stand in the kitchen, sorting sweat pants
and pairing socks, I remember the afternoon
I did my laundry in Budapest, where the sidewalks
bloomed with embroidered linen, where money
wasn’t permitted to leave the country.
When I close my eyes, I recall that spinning,
then a woman, with nothing else to sell,
pressing wilted flowers in my hands.
We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry
Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department
7/6/2015 Gmail American
Life in Poetry 537
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=79b965383d&view=pt&search=inbox&th=14e63e49b5998b9e&siml=14e63e49b5998b9e 2/2
of English at the University of NebraskaLincoln.
Poem copyright ©2014 by Anya Krugovoy Silver, “Doing
Laundry in Budapest,” from I Watched You Disappear: Poems, (Louisiana State Univ. Press, 2014). Poem
reprinted by permission of Anya Krugovoy Silver and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2015 by The
Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant
in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 20042006.

Sting - Brand New Day

My favorite "want ad"

World Religion Day 2015

Trapped Truth Poetry Group

The Year 2014

Permalink to Zen Cognition, comments about the Poetry Foundation's magazine

http://zencognition.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-poetry-foundations-mailing-list.html

I concluded today that I can do more polishing and editing of all the compositions I have been collecting in digital format and eventually make a submission to a real poetry magazine.  It is my great leap forward you might say.  If you follow the above link you will find additional comments concerning enrolling in the Poetry Foundation's mailing lists.  You are welcome to join me there.

You will find that I will post items to this blog in the future, but I have concluded that my more creative talents are better placed in a different channel.  Basically, I don't think I am getting enough feedback on this blog, so I am searching for gratification elsewhere.  Now don't worry, you're not fired and I'm not quitting.  I am simply re-directing some of my energy.

I hope you continue to find my comments here as interesting as you all have in the past.  I will keep plugging away.  I think I am hooked on writing creatively at this point and after all, the great USA is still a free country.....

Cheers.  There is plenty more writing from me where all this has come from, so look for me in the slick magazine editions of Poetry in the future.  I might actually make it someday.