Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God
Good poets seem to recognize that what makes them good is what annoys them most about themselves. Damn the constant chatter—enough already!—but yes, admittedly, there’s some workable stuff in there. A masterful sifter, Tony Hoagland has authored five previous collections. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, he lives in New Mexico.
An Ordinary Night In Athens, Ohio
Those children in pajamas
in the big suburban houses
are not dreaming
of fireflies in jars,
nor model cars,
but of fist-fighting
on Mars
in bodies not their own;
they are not feeding the hamster
small bits of lettuce
and changing its name
from Joe to Josephine, and back,
but sprinting over the rooftops
of burning Dairy Queens
and aiming shoulder-launched rockets
into shopping malls.
They are not dreaming
of taking the quiz
and getting deeply hung up
on the answer to question four,
but of yellow school buses
wrapped in ruptures of flame,
and of playmates they knew
in second grade
floating facedown
over the dimes and tarnished pennies
in the wishing fountain.
Reviewed by
Matt Sutherland
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