“the further i go / more letters from home / never arrive / and i’m alone / all of the way”

Poetry Monday:


Poet's Work, Lorine Niedecker

Grandfather
    advised me:
        Learn a trade

I learned
    to sit at desk
        and condense

No layoff
    from this
        condensery


Niedecker (1903–1970) was born in southern Wisconsin, and aside from a brief stint in New York in the 1930s lived there all her life. Her spare, condensed poetry received little attention until near the end of her life, but she is now regarded as an important modernist.

---L.

Subject quote from Rowing Song, Patty Griffin.