Touch electric fences just for the shock.
Set a straight corner post. Drill a well.
Butcher chickens. Castrate calves. Make time
to listen to me. Take Sunday off.
Keep ten hoodlums in line
at home. Get picked first for baseball
at age seventy-- by seventh graders .
Crack it to center field.
Surprise even the skeptical.
Steward a centennial homestead. Move
from horse to Model T to GMC. Tame
wild Angus. Live by example. Exude patience.
Dance a jig. Strum a guitar. Crack a wise smile.
Hold back an I told you so. Notice
the beauty of simplicity.
Nap during chaos.
Jill Diamond
Moscow ID
NIWP Summer Institute 2009
Resume
12 years ago
3 comments:
What I love about this poem is how you arranged the lines. Often we put short phrases each on a line and it makes this really long poems. Your images are sharp and your arrangement works very well. I can sure get a picture of your Grandpa in this poem.
This was completely guided by Marti! I would have kept everything in a phrase on the same line, but she showed me the power of the dangling verb. She called this enjambment(sp.)
I like it. Especially the napping during chaos. How comfortable he is with his life and others.
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