Lord Whoever, thank you for this air I'm about to in- and exhale,
this hutch in the woods, the wood for fire,
the light- both lamp and the natural stuff
of leaf-back, fern, and wing.
For the piano, the shovel
for ashes, the moth-gnawed
blankets, the stone-cold water
stone-cold: thank you.
Thank you, Lord, coming for
to carry me here- where I'll gnash
it out, Lord, where I'll calm
and work, Lord, thank you
for the goddamn birds singing!
Hi Victoria, I was looking for a specific poem today (which I never found), when I came across Tom Lux’s name and after I read the poem he wrote called The Bitterness of Children, it said he passed away in 2017. And I thought wow, Tom died… how did I miss that? I took poetry from him in college… and now here he is again on your post, so unexpectedly for me… I figured his ghost was trying to tell me something about my poems. Like, do better! He was a hard teacher, in that he’d shred our work to make us work it out. Not that you needed my long story-short, but thanks for sharing his work. He was the best poetry teacher I ever had or ever will have to be sure. It’s meaningful to see him here.
Home Economics 
Hi Victoria, I was looking for a specific poem today (which I never found), when I came across Tom Lux’s name and after I read the poem he wrote called The Bitterness of Children, it said he passed away in 2017. And I thought wow, Tom died… how did I miss that? I took poetry from him in college… and now here he is again on your post, so unexpectedly for me… I figured his ghost was trying to tell me something about my poems. Like, do better! He was a hard teacher, in that he’d shred our work to make us work it out. Not that you needed my long story-short, but thanks for sharing his work. He was the best poetry teacher I ever had or ever will have to be sure. It’s meaningful to see him here.
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing this. I hope the post does indeed inspire your poetry.
LikeLike
Thank you again Victoria.
LikeLike