Garrison Keillor single-highhandedly tries to keep poetry somewhere central to our lives. Good Poems: American Places is the just published second collection Keillor’s brought out in his quixotic quest to keep poetry relevant in our decadent times. Many of my favorite poets are included: Grace Paley, W. S. Merwin, Emily Dickinson, Robert Bly, Kenneth Rexroth, Philip Levine and a dozen others. Keillor includes poems that celebrate all parts of America. There’s even a poem entitled “City of Tonawanda Softball Championship” by Sarah Freligh. I also discovered some new poets I’ll have to read more of. One of them wrote the poem below:
NANCY DREW
By Ron Koertge
Merely pretty, she made up for it with vim.
And she got to say things like, “But, gosh,
what if these plans should fall into the wrong
hands?” And it was pretty clear she didn’t mean
plans for a party or a trip to the museum, but
something involving espionage and a Nazi or two.
In fact, the handsome exchange student turns
out to be a Fascist sympathizer. When he snatches
Nancy along with some blueprints, she knows he
has something more sinister in mind than kissing
with his mouth open.
Locked in the pantry of an abandoned farm house,
Nancy makes a radio out of a shoelace and a muffin.
Pretty soon the police will show up, and everything’s
hunky dory.
Nancy accepts their thanks, but she’s subdued.
It’s not like her to fall for a cad. Even as she plans
a short vacation to sort out her emotions, she knows
there will be a suspicious waiter, a woman in a green
off the shoulder dress, and her very jittery husband.
GRADE: A
How clever to write a poem about Nancy! And it is so funny.
Ray Koertge also has a poem about Superman in this collection that’s pretty funny, too, Patti.
Very amusing.
There are a couple hundred poems in GOOD POEMS that surprise and amuse, Jeff. This is a wonderful collection.
I was very pleased to be included among all those good and great poets!
And I was pleased to see a fine poem about Tonawanda, Sarah! As you know, North Tonawanda is just over the canal, and I live near DeGraff Hospital. It’s nice to see our area celebrated by your poem in this marvelous collection.
I have, and enjoy dipping into, the first collection. I didn’t know this was out, thanks for the alert.
Subterranean Books warns that they printed fewer copies than normal of DANGEROUS WAYS, Rick. Apparently, they were unsure that Jack Vance’s mysteries would sell as well as Vance’s fantasy and SF.
That is such a nice glimpse of his poem. I will definitely going to purchase the book.
James, I really enjoyed GOOD POEMS: AMERICAN PLACES. You should, too.