Monday, November 24, 2008

Yellowrocket

Last week, we hosted a reading by poet Todd Boss.  His new book, Yellowrocket, just came out from W.W. Norton & Company.  And it is wonderful!  The collection is divided into six sections dealing with themes such as family & farming, marriage, children and loneliness.

The title comes from the Yellow Rocket plant that grew on Todd's childhood farm.  The story of how his family acquired the farm is remarkable.  And Todd's poem, Yellowrocket, captures the essence of that experience.

Boss writes, "Never buy a farm in winter."   In winter, their brand new 80 acres were covered in beautiful, white snow.  But in spring, snow melted to reveal 80 acres of trash.  

Unwitting heirs, we'd
come into a garden
overgrown with plastic
diapers and broken
furniture tangled in

burdock and brambles
and thistle.

And Yellow Rocket.  Todd's reading brought me there.  I could feel the cold and despair of looking out over 80 acres of garbage.  My hands felt chapped and bleeding just listening to him speak of picking up all that trash and hauling it to the dump.  He writes:

Had holes been coins,
our gloves and boots
would've jangled.

That evening at Micawber's, Todd also read a poem about the house he used to live in only two blocks from the bookstore.  Todd lived in the neighborhood and, in fact, managed Micawber's for a short time.  Most of the local houses are nearly 100 years old.  I understood this poem completely, thinking about my own old house.

My house is Small and Almost

a hundred years old.  Inside,
 the oaken posts and beams
make the living room seem
 like a glade.  When friends
pronounce it comfortable,
 it's 1910 that comforts them,
and nothing I have done.

There must be a room
 in the human heart
that's older than the body.
 And it's good to be there
in that foursquare cathedral
 where nothing has changed
since before we were made.

I highly recommend Todd Boss' new collection of poems.  Yellowrocket is thoughtful, honest, and very poignant.  And if you have a chance to hear him read his work, do it.  You'll be glad you did.