Poet Saskia Hamilton on vinyl records and the ‘warmth of the scratches’


Listen to Saskia Hamilton read her poem “Once” from her new collection, “Corridor.”

Once

                  In the night, the bed was as long
as the hours, the hours were as long as the road
or the future, the past was not our destiny,
the foreboding or foretelling was left
on the shelves to the longplaying records
we’d switch on for the warmth of the scratches
that pocked the music like rain, as the needle
wandered all that black circumference—

Meg Tyler

Photo by Meg Tyler

Saskia Hamilton has published four collections of poetry, including “Divide These” and “As for Dream.” “Corridor” is her most recent collection. She also coedited “Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell” with Thomas Travisano, and edited “The Letters of Robert Lowell.” Hamilton is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliff Institute of Advanced Study. She is an editor for the journal Literary Imagination and has taught at Barnard College, Kenyon College and Stonehill College.

All poems copyright © 2014 by Saskia Hamilton, from Corridor. Used by permission of Graywolf Press. All rights reserved.

We're not going anywhere.

Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on!