This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 10, 2012 - William Carlos Williams famously said "No ideas but in things." It's things, usually small things, that tell us about the world and who we are. This month's poem celebrates them -- specifically things lost, forgotten or buried.
Alison Pelegrin
Ode to Things
Dumpsters of things,
shiny baubles of the earth,
things we collect
then discard or forget --
paperclips, state capitol
teaspoons, marbles,
baby food jars
with buttons inside.
Avalanche of artwork --
every doodle a keeper
at first, Sam's circus
tents more like wild
wild west volcanoes
spewing clowns. Bookmarks,
banana phones, spatulas,
shuttlecocks, goggles,
Pink Pearl erasers,
my dead father's clothes,
his dancing shoes,
and in a landfill
between here and Texas
cousin Amanda's
ballerina jewelry box
bereft of corsages,
of brass rings that rash
fat fingers green.
Endless inventory,
pharaoh's tomb
crowded with vessels,
the jackal god's
hieroglyphic rant
on the wall.
Stolen things, seashell
barrette I lifted
in Ft. Lauderdale,
bicycles, lawnmower
wheeled out of the garage
in winter, while the grass
slept. Nobody noticed,
which reminds me
of the time I ran away --
took Sock Monkey
around the block to mope
beneath a willow tree.
Alison Pelegrin is the author of three poetry collections, most recently "Hurricane Party" (The University of Akron Press, 2012). The recipient of fellowships from The Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, her poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, River Styx and many other places. She teaches English at Southeastern Louisiana University and lives in Covington, La., with her family.
To learn more about River Styx, click here. Richard Newman, River Styx editor for 15 years, is the author of two full-length poetry collections, "Borrowed Towns" and "Domestic Fugues." He also co-directs the River Styx at Duff's reading series.