Lyrical Somerville

Edited by Doug Holder

Michigan poet Jared Smith generously shared a poem with me during a recent interview at the office of The Somerville News. Smith, a former energy consultant with the federal government, who is now on the board of the New York Quarterly, has written policy, as well as a great deal of poetry. Here is a poem for a late winter’s eve. 

Dark Machinery of Maybe

The long eastern snow has slowed,
leaving only at last scattered tracks,
bud-swelled branches scattered broken,
mail boxes filled with empty envelopes,
homes with no one left to light the lights,
a swirl of missed meaning and metaphor.

I do not have to travel far today:
the flights to Boston, London, and Sydney
are delayed in the dark machinery of maybe.
A cup of soup steeped with seeds from Beijing
brought inside with pine logs from Wisconsin
brings the miles together between my fingers.

Bartok plays shocked digital destinations magnetically
in a living room where my hands are warmed before a fire.

—Jared Smith

Comments

[Bill Shelton]

Doug,

I don't get it.

Yer pal,

Bill

[High Praise for The Somerville News]

Doug,

Forgive me for not being back in touch sooner. Things are popping out here. I very much enjoy The Somerville News and your Lyrical Somerville column in it. The whole paper has the kind of enlightened intelligence that I haven't seen since the old days of The Village Voice back in the 70s. I am honored that you chose to include my poem in Lyrical Somerville. I am sure that you reach a broader swath of humanity with that column than most poetry magazines do, and I'm pleased to be a member of the club there.

[barb]

I thoroughly enjoyed Doug's homage to one of my favorite places on the planet. Since I'm a simmer visitor, can you tell me if JP Licks closes during the winter? How I miss my summer walks past the Somerville News to catch the Redline. I won't be missing it for long. I'm packing to relocate. Until then, I'll keep reading Somerville News online....

[Ron Newman]

JP Licks is open in the winter, though I've sometimes seen them close for a few weeks in January.