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Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Found Ted Kooser Poem

UD, faithful readers know, has a regular University Diaries feature in which she makes poems out of phrases she finds in news stories. Today she offers a variant of that -- she makes a Ted Kooser poem (our poet laureate) out of phrases she has found in a newspaper article.

First, by way of example, here’s a Kooser:



A Glimpse of the Eternal


Just now,
a sparrow lighted
on a pine bow
right outside
my bedroom window
and a puff
of yellow pollen
flew away.


To write this sort of poem (which is not Kooser‘s alone but the provenance of much current American creative writing), you need it to be a short description of a poignant moment in your life prompted by a small something in the natural world that happened to catch your eye.

To lend this thin form of verse profundity, it’s a good idea to affix a spiritual title to it. Also, your last line should have a ‘self-consuming’ feel to it (here “flew away”), suggesting the impermanence of even your poem as it unravels at the very end.



UD now shows you how it’s done from the ground up. Here’s an article from UPI today:


Untilled Utah field becomes vole heaven

LEHI, Utah, May 9 (UPI) -- House cats are growing fatter in Lehi, Utah, after hundreds of thousands of mouse-like voles began multiplying furiously in an untilled field.

The field is slated for development and was not tilled this year. State agriculture officials say that's what allowed the population explosion of the furry rodents.

Voles have 10-12 litters a year with 5-10 young in each litter. Because the lack of plowing and tilling left their habitat intact, they are now burrowing beneath lawns and showing no fear of humans, the Provo Daily Herald reported Tuesday.

"The weird thing is they aren't afraid of you," resident Jill Clemens told the Herald. "They totally have run across my feet. They are fat and slow."

Some residents have let their cats out for as many easy and free meals as they can eat, while others are using BB guns to cull the vole herds.

Utah State University Extension Service senior horticultural assistant Pat Fugal said the simplest way to get rid of voles -- apart from tilling the field -- is to apply zinc phosphide, a poison available at outdoor supply centers.


Here’s the poem:

Until Heaven [Note: UD has provided not merely a spiritual reference in her title, but a pun on “untilled”]

This morning,
Two voles ran across my feet,
Fat, unfleet.

Deep in the unplowed fields of Utah
Multiplying
Burrowing

Their habitat
Brings out the cat
And the culling guns.

Their furious joy
Will soon be stilled:
No field remains for long untilled.
Posted at: 5/10/2006 10:25:00 AM