By — artsdesk artsdesk Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/poetry/weekly-poem-thomas-dooley-reads-aunt-peggy Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter A poet looks to his own family to understand forgiveness Poetry Mar 16, 2015 2:54 PM EST Listen to Thomas Dooley read “Aunt Peggy” from his debut collection, “Trespass.” When Dooley was writing this poem, he was preoccupied with understanding forgiveness. “What is a therapeutic response to something? It’s such a personal thing,” Dooley told Art Beat in December. The poem is “trying to figure out, how does one go on when something has happened? And maybe a way to go on is to not go on with a certain person. Maybe that is how you can save your life.” Aunt Peggy Afternoon sun on metals, hubcaps flash on Second Avenue, I’ve been seesawing my feet on the edge of the curb for almost an hour on the phone with my mother, It just doesn’t make sense, the subject always comes up, I mean she’s had years of therapy, she says years with such exhalation her breath gets reedy, I pick threads from my scarf, Why can’t Peggy forgive your father? The city is bright, winter is quiet, a pause on motion, Mom, look at all she’s been through, Pop then Dad, I mean, good god, her voice tenders, But Tom, she ticks her throat, don’t you think after all that therapy she would be able to forgive? I can feel a draft in my sleeve, it hits the sweat at the bend of my arm, Maybe this is her therapy. Treat Dad like he’s dead. There is a shallow dent in the chrome fender of an old car my image runs over and warps, my mother is quiet, I’ve handed her something new, she might stand for a while in her kitchen and wait for the dishwasher to end its cycle. “Trespass” is Thomas Dooley‘s debut collection of poetry. The book was selected by poet and novelist Charlie Smith for the 2013 National Poetry Series. Dooley is the founder and artistic director of Emotive Fruition, an experimental theater collective where actors and poets work together to perform written poetry. He earned an MFA from New York University, has received fellowships from New York University and the Jentel and Starlight Foundations, and lives in Brooklyn, New York. From the book Trespass: Poems by Thomas Dooley. Copyright © 2014 by Thomas Dooley. Reprinted courtesy of Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. By — artsdesk artsdesk
Listen to Thomas Dooley read “Aunt Peggy” from his debut collection, “Trespass.” When Dooley was writing this poem, he was preoccupied with understanding forgiveness. “What is a therapeutic response to something? It’s such a personal thing,” Dooley told Art Beat in December. The poem is “trying to figure out, how does one go on when something has happened? And maybe a way to go on is to not go on with a certain person. Maybe that is how you can save your life.” Aunt Peggy Afternoon sun on metals, hubcaps flash on Second Avenue, I’ve been seesawing my feet on the edge of the curb for almost an hour on the phone with my mother, It just doesn’t make sense, the subject always comes up, I mean she’s had years of therapy, she says years with such exhalation her breath gets reedy, I pick threads from my scarf, Why can’t Peggy forgive your father? The city is bright, winter is quiet, a pause on motion, Mom, look at all she’s been through, Pop then Dad, I mean, good god, her voice tenders, But Tom, she ticks her throat, don’t you think after all that therapy she would be able to forgive? I can feel a draft in my sleeve, it hits the sweat at the bend of my arm, Maybe this is her therapy. Treat Dad like he’s dead. There is a shallow dent in the chrome fender of an old car my image runs over and warps, my mother is quiet, I’ve handed her something new, she might stand for a while in her kitchen and wait for the dishwasher to end its cycle. “Trespass” is Thomas Dooley‘s debut collection of poetry. The book was selected by poet and novelist Charlie Smith for the 2013 National Poetry Series. Dooley is the founder and artistic director of Emotive Fruition, an experimental theater collective where actors and poets work together to perform written poetry. He earned an MFA from New York University, has received fellowships from New York University and the Jentel and Starlight Foundations, and lives in Brooklyn, New York. From the book Trespass: Poems by Thomas Dooley. Copyright © 2014 by Thomas Dooley. Reprinted courtesy of Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.