[stylist] {Disarmed} FW: Star in the Throat, Fire in the Cupboard by Catie Rosemurgy

Wed Apr 30 18:47:09 UTC 2014

Bridgit,
Here is a sample of a poem I received today, that without the author’s note, I could get little meaning. I read for meaning, and you like the metaphors and word choices. I like that also, once I have a clue about the content. Curious about your reaction to this. There are many similar instances, as I read each one each day and sweat over many. Often I will not read the authors note until after the sweating. Sometimes I just give up, and then read it. 

Jackie Lee

Time is the school in which we learn.
Time is the fire in which we burn.
Delmore Schwartz       

From: Poem-a-Day | Poets.org [mailto:poem-a-day=poets.org at cmail3.com] On Behalf Of Poem-a-Day | Poets.org
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2014 3:30 AM
To: jackieleepoet at cox.net
Subject: Star in the Throat, Fire in the Cupboard by Catie Rosemurgy

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April 30, 2014

 <http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail3.com/t/y-l-ilditll-jrjuhriylk-p/> Star in the Throat, Fire in the Cupboard

Catie Rosemurgy 

When I was young, I hid under the porch with a star in my throat.
When I got a little older, my mother opened the cupboard to let the           fire out.

I should’ve known the cliffs meant a coming blankness.
We should’ve noticed the competition growing deadly between the           masts and the trees.
The problem wasn’t the lateness of our parties
but what we used for wood to keep them lit.

What is it people say—take my arm and walk with me along the shore      for a minute?

My mother, bless her, is a speck of color in the flush of a great cheek.
I’ve come to ask you to consider praying for that giant child.

Remember when we began to forget the babies once we tossed them in      the air?
First it was the completion of those simple gestures, but then entire          sections of the story
went missing. In our lips we could feel the slight buzz
of the edge where the cut was made. We crawled in and out of those           holes
wearing different faces.

I believe the stories got wet and began to bleed together.
I believe we built the sides of the town too high and the events kept           rolling back.
I didn’t know that the water was going to keep rising as well,
but if you have any say in the matter, while the boats go down,
I’d like to be on a ladder,
peeking into a loft made narcotic with children,
a dead pool with rolling, living waves. If possible,
I’d like the water to douse the match that’s growing out of the bones           of my hand.

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About This Poem

“‘Star in the Throat, Fire in the Cupboard’ is loosely based on events that occurred throughout northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan during the 1800s and early 1900s. The poem comes from a collection about a fictional town in which several conflated and highly-altered historical disasters happen over and over. The town keeps burning, flooding, dwindling, and finally disappearing. This particular poem speculates on how an event (in this case the Peshtigo, Wisconsin, firestorm of 1871—the worst recorded forest fire in United States history) becomes distorted through repetition and retelling.”
—Catie Rosemurgy

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Catie Rosemurgy’s latest book is The Stranger Manual (Graywolf Press, 2009). She lives in Philadelphia and teaches at The College of New Jersey.

 <http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail3.com/t/y-l-ilditll-jrjuhriylk-x/> 

Most Recent Book by Rosemurgy

 <http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail3.com/t/y-l-ilditll-jrjuhriylk-q/> The Stranger Manual
(Graywolf Press, 2009)

"A group of girls from Minnesota or black mascara"
by Maureen Owen

 <http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail3.com/t/y-l-ilditll-jrjuhriylk-a/> read-more

"Help Me to Salt, Help Me to Sorrow"
by Judy Jordan

 <http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail3.com/t/y-l-ilditll-jrjuhriylk-f/> read-more

"forgetting something"
by Nick Flynn

 <http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail3.com/t/y-l-ilditll-jrjuhriylk-z/> read-more

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