Today's poem on The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor is "Staff Sgt. Metz" by Dorianne Laux from The Book of Men: Poems. © W.W. Norton, 2011.
This achingly beautiful poem made me recall the many times I've passed a young, sober-faced soldier "in his camo gear and buzz cut" at the airport.
Laux captures the tension of this scene with understatement--"Metz is alive for now"--and telling details--"the countless bones of his foot trapped in his boot"--along with the emotional landscape of one attentive bystander: "I don't believe in anything anymore: / god, country, money or love. / All that matters to me now / is his life, the body so perfectly made. . ."
Dorianne Laux is one of my favorite poets, and I plan to read her new book of poems after the semester wraps up.
This achingly beautiful poem made me recall the many times I've passed a young, sober-faced soldier "in his camo gear and buzz cut" at the airport.
Laux captures the tension of this scene with understatement--"Metz is alive for now"--and telling details--"the countless bones of his foot trapped in his boot"--along with the emotional landscape of one attentive bystander: "I don't believe in anything anymore: / god, country, money or love. / All that matters to me now / is his life, the body so perfectly made. . ."
Dorianne Laux is one of my favorite poets, and I plan to read her new book of poems after the semester wraps up.
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