As promised in last week’s Weekend Reader, here’s the poem I’ve picked for Thursday’s Poem in Your Pocket Day. It’s “High in the Bamboo,” a well-loved poem by the late Oregon writer Peter Sears, a former state poet laureate.
If you call me on Thursday at 541-905-4282, you’ll hear me read this poem as my voicemail message. I invite readers to leave me a voice message with the poem they’ve chosen for the day — but if you get a chance to read your poem aloud in another venue on Thursday, seize the opportunity — even if it means you have to shout the poem from the safety of your front porch.
If you like, feel free to post your selection for Poem in Your Pocket Day in the comments section below. Here’s the Sears poem:
“High in the Bamboo”
The cat likes to sit in the bamboo,
rest its head on its front paws,
and look out at the world.
I like to sit on the porch,
rest my head against the back of my old chair,
and watch the cat look at the world.
I look up into the bamboo, too,
glance back down at the cat
to see if it has moved.
It hasn’t. I try to catch it moving.
I don’t succeed. I squint to pretend
I am falling asleep. I fall asleep.
When I awake, the cat is gone.
I look back into the bamboo.
The bamboo tops move.
Here’s the poem in my pocket today.
Hurry
BY MARIE HOWE
We stop at the dry cleaners and the grocery store
and the gas station and the green market and
Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,
as she runs along two or three steps behind me
her blue jacket unzipped and her socks rolled down.
Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave?
To mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?
Today, when all the errands are finally done, I say to her,
Honey I’m sorry I keep saying Hurry—
you walk ahead of me. You be the mother.
And, Hurry up, she says, over her shoulder, looking
back at me, laughing. Hurry up now darling, she says,
hurry, hurry, taking the house keys from my hands.