Wisconsin has an overabundance of wonderful and well-known poets (but can one ever have an overabundance of poets?). On Jayne Jaudon Ferrer’s excellent website, http://www.yourdailypoem.com/ there are 64 Wisconsin poets represented, and over 500 of their poems archived. And those are just the ones that I recognize as Wisconsin poets. Jayne informed me that she receives many more submissions (multiple times more) from Wisconsin than from any other state.
Of the Wisconsin, or Wisconsin-born poets I’ve written about in previous posts are: Todd Boss, Ralph Murre, Dasha Kelly Hamilton, John Koethe, Sylvia Cavanaugh, Antler, and Marilyn Taylor. Check them all out when you can. It’s time for another. Bruce Dethlefsen served as Wisconsin Poet Laureate, 2010-2011 http://www.wisconsinpoetlaureate.org/bruce-dethlefsen
Bruce is not only a great poet, but is a generous supporter of new and emerging poets. He was the first to befriend me, of the many Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets that I now consider close friends. At my first conference he made a point of introducing himself and encouraging my continued writing. Bruce likes to call it “giving the artist permission to be an artist”.
Bruce writes sometimes humorous, sometimes serious (often times both) poems. In the featured poem, “Suicide Aside”, I love the way the lines “you try it/flap your arms for all you’re worth/no way your stuck” affect me in that way. Serious and funny at the same time.
Check out his website here: https://www.brucedethlefsen.com
And read some of the many poems featured there, including some on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac.
“Suicide Aside” is one of my favorites, of the many of his poems that I love. Notice how three of our five senses, (seeing, tasting, and hearing) are integral parts of the poem’s flow. Something I learned in a workshop I once took from Margaret Rozga, and something I’m reminded now, that put I into practice far too seldom.
The final stanza is so heart-wrenching:
“alright don’t tell me
but please me
stick around a while
with me to watch the birds
see how they swirl and turn the world”
Suicide Aside
suicide aside
try watching birds
regard them as they fly like salt to bread
spice up this crusty world
a giant spider web
their lines of flight
tie up and bind the world
they fly
birds jump up in the air and stay
you try it
flap your arms for all you’re worth
no way you’re stuck
they’re free to leave the world
the colors
lemon zest and lime and berry
sugar coffee cream
and all the rest
sublime delicious flavors how
our eyes drink in the world
and listen to them sing
the wind becomes a thing alive
with music whistles squawks and chirps
a melody of world
so tell me why you thought you’d rather die
check out pluck all the feathers
close the lights
alright don’t tell me
but please me
stick around a while
with me to watch the birds
see how they swirl and turn the world
—Bruce Dethlefsen from Breather