Vox Populi
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Brad Davis: On the Way to Putnam
Were you to tell him how,
in late summer’s
westering light,
his yellow cornfields and,
toward the middle,
that lone, misshapen tree
become your very own
Serengeti, complete
with buzzards
ascending and descending
upon some bloated corpse,
likely a wildebeest,
Mr. Amaral, a businessman,
would nod politely.
~~~~
Copyright 2024. First appeared in Poetry (Chicago).
Brad Davis is the author of ten collections of poems, most recently On the Way to Putnam:New, Selected, & Early Poems (Grayson, 2024)
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Applauded it in the eponymous book, and applaud it now! Go, Brad (and Deb)!
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Thank you, magicalphantom (whoever you are or are not).
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Somehow my comment on Brad Davis’s poem was ascribed to one “magical phantom. ??
All best,
Syd
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So well done. Happens to me all the time. But I am learning. And sometimes, there are surprises.
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much appreciated, rosemary
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I like how this poem connects the right-brain-centric poet with the left-brain focused business fellow. The world-views of agriculture and the pastoral focused at a gnarled tree. Cordial, but unsettling in the two meanings. Jeffrey Harrison’s comment nails it.
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Thanks, Jim.
>
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thank you, jm
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I second my friend Jeffrey!
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Thanks, Laure-Anne!
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This poem first made me shiver, then made me think, then sadness, then I just sat with it. I will return to it. Why I love poetry.
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Me too, Barbara.
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much gratitude for such a reader as you, Barbara.
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Nice poem, Brad! I love the way the complex syntax of the single sentence is parsed out over the short lines. And the combination of awe spiced with a pinch of irony feels just right.
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Thanks, Jeffrey!
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Thanks, Jeff.
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