'Ordinary language to the Nth power'

 

“Poetryis ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is nerved and blooded withemotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words.” –Paul Engle

 

Bornin Cedar Rapids, IA on this date in 1908, Engle was a poet, editor,teacher, literary critic, novelist and playwright. He served as long-timedirector of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and co-founded the University ofIowa’s International Writing Program.   By the time of hisdeath in 1991, he had authored a dozen collections of poetry, a novel, amemoir, an opera libretto, a children's book and dozens of articles and reviewsfor magazines and journals around the globe.    

 

 ForSaturday’s Poem, here is Engle’s,

 

                                                             Twenty Below

Twentybelow, I said, and closed the door,
A drop of five degrees and going down.
It makes a tautened drum-hide of the floor,
Brittle as leaves each building in the town.
I wonder what would happen to us here
If that hard wind of winter never stopped,
No man again could watch the night grow clear,
The blue thermometer forever dropped.

I hope, you answered, for so cruel a storm
To freeze remoteness from our lives too cold.
Then we could learn, huddled all close, how warm
The hearts of men who live alone too much,
And once, before our death, admit the old
Need of a human nearness, need of touch.