By — Tom LeGro Tom LeGro Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/weekly-poem-single-room Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Weekly Poem: ‘Single Room’ Arts Apr 15, 2013 1:46 PM EDT By Averill Curdy Years ago, I suspected I might end Alone and imagined myself, fierce, Stalwart, walking these beaches With a driftwood staff. But not this. In the one saucepan, which tilts toylike On its base, I boil water for coffee. To answer silence, I narrate the minutes: Rinse the pan, put away groceries; Between me and the Oreos I’ll create Dramas of temptation and resistance. I came upon a sea lion, given up In the dunes, inveigling scavengers. Flayed, It lay gelid, flushed, freaked with sand, At the crease of transformation— Organ, orchid, odalisque. The gulls Moved like sharpening knives above A too-elaborate meal for one who eats Alone. Behind the dunes, the Pacific roars, Approaches, and withdraws, reaching For something, for anything—everything— But not for this. Averill Curdy is the author of the collection “Song & Error” (2013, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and co-edited, with Lynne McMahon, “The Longman Anthology of Poetry” (2006). She has received fellowships from the NEA and the Rona Jaffe Foundation, among others, and her poems have appeared widely in both the United States and England. She lives in Chicago and teaches at Northwestern University. A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue. Donate now By — Tom LeGro Tom LeGro
By Averill Curdy Years ago, I suspected I might end Alone and imagined myself, fierce, Stalwart, walking these beaches With a driftwood staff. But not this. In the one saucepan, which tilts toylike On its base, I boil water for coffee. To answer silence, I narrate the minutes: Rinse the pan, put away groceries; Between me and the Oreos I’ll create Dramas of temptation and resistance. I came upon a sea lion, given up In the dunes, inveigling scavengers. Flayed, It lay gelid, flushed, freaked with sand, At the crease of transformation— Organ, orchid, odalisque. The gulls Moved like sharpening knives above A too-elaborate meal for one who eats Alone. Behind the dunes, the Pacific roars, Approaches, and withdraws, reaching For something, for anything—everything— But not for this. Averill Curdy is the author of the collection “Song & Error” (2013, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and co-edited, with Lynne McMahon, “The Longman Anthology of Poetry” (2006). She has received fellowships from the NEA and the Rona Jaffe Foundation, among others, and her poems have appeared widely in both the United States and England. She lives in Chicago and teaches at Northwestern University. A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue. Donate now