Dave Read

By Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006

There are lots of poems in which a poet expresses belated appreciation for a parent, and if you don’t know Robert Hayden’s poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” you ought to look it up sometime. In this lovely sonnet, Kathy Mangan, of Maryland, contributes to that respected tradition.

The Whistle

You could whistle me home from anywhere
in the neighborhood; avenues away,
I’d pick out your clear, alternating pair
of notes, the signal to quit my child’s play
and run back to our house for supper,
or a Saturday trip to the hardware store.
Unthrottled, wavering in the upper
reaches, your trilled summons traveled farther
than our few blocks. I’ve learned too, how your heart’s
radius extends, though its beat
has stopped. Still, some days a sudden fear darts
through me, whether it’s my own city street
I hurry across, or at a corner in an unknown
town: the high, vacant air arrests me—where’s home?

American Life in Poetry, Column 242 – made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck. Reprinted from The Spoon River Poetry Review, Vol. XXXIII, no. 1, 2008, by permission of Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck and the publisher. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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Emmy Award-winning writer, producer and WTF Board member Tom Fontana will be honored at the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 2009 Gala, November 16 at 6:00 p.m. at the Prince George Ballroom in New York City.

Tom joined the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 1978, first as self-described “General Factotum” to Artistic Director Nikos Psacharopoulos, and served as Playwright-in-Residence. During the 1981 season, Tom’s play The Spectre Bridegroom attracted the attention of producer and WTF friend Bruce Paltrow, who hired him to write for his new series “St. Elsewhere.” Tom has been unstoppable ever since, injecting his bold theatrical sensibility into the medium of television with ground-breaking shows like “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “Oz,” “The Jury” and “The Philanthropist.”

Kate Burton, Victor Garber, Harriet Harris, Steve Lawson and members of the Williamstown Theatre Festival Non-Equity Company will participate in the event. Past honorees at the Williamstown Theatre Festival Gala include Lewis Black, Kate Burton, Blythe Danner, A.R. Gurney and Tom Stoppard. To request an invitation or to purchase tickets, contact Eric Kerns, Director of Development, at (413) 597-4630.

By Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2004-2006

I love poems in which the central metaphors are fresh and original, and here’s a marvelous, coiny description of autumn by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck, who lives in Illinois.

Like Coins, November

We drove past late fall fields as flat and cold
as sheets of tin and, in the distance, trees

were tossed like coins against the sky. Stunned gold
and bronze, oaks, maples stood in twos and threes:

some copper bright, a few dull brown and, now
and then, the shock of one so steeled with frost

it glittered like a dime. The autumn boughs
and blackened branches wore a somber gloss

that whispered tails to me, not heads. I read
memorial columns in their trunks; their leaves

spelled UNUM, cent; and yours, the only head . . .
in penny profile, Lincoln-like (one sleeve,

one eye) but even it was turning tails
as russet leaves lay spent across the trails.

American Life in Poetry, Column 241 – made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck. Reprinted from The Spoon River Poetry Review, Vol. XXXIII, no. 1, 2008, by permission of Elizabeth Klise von Zerneck and the publisher. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

Berkshire Theatre Festival has completed casting for its annual production of A Christmas Carol, scheduled to run from December 12 through December 30, 2009. This is fast becoming a Berkshire County holiday tradition and is fun for the whole family. This original adaptation by Eric Hill will once again be co-directed by Eric and E. Gray Simons III, who will also both be featured actors. Featuring a cast of BTF favorites, including 15 local school kids, new this year will be two special nights featuring movie pricing: Sunday, December 20 at 7pm or Monday, December 28 at 7pm when tickets will be $10 each.