Poem of the Week, by Todd Boss

Poem of the Week, by Mary Karr Poem of the Week, by Marge Piercy

Poem of the Week, by Todd Boss

My friend Erica and I are both the if-your-fingers-are-busy-then-your-concentration-is-more-focused types. We like to sit next to each other in meetings because we can then present a united front of seamstressery, which is a word I just made up. Erica, an artist specializing in handmade paper creations (her work is stunning), calmly plies her needle while I either knit or quilt. In this way, we can pay close attention to what’s being said. Slow, rhythmic projects that take time and care, like quilting or gardening or cooking or long hikes, both keep me sane and bring ideas floating into my head. When I read this poem by Todd Boss it brought me right back to elementary school, those fat pencils and thick paper with the wide lines. Wooden desks. The whispery sound of pencil on paper. The tangibility of the physical world.

Shack hammock (1)

The World Is in Pencil

– Todd Boss

—not pen. It’s got

that same silken

dust about it, doesn’t it,

that same sense of

having been roughed

onto paper even

as it was planned.

It had to be a labor

of love. It must’ve

taken its author some

time, some shove.

I’ll bet it felt good

in the hand—the o

of the ocean, and

the and and the and

of the land.