The Owl Question: Poems (May Swenson Poetry Award Series)

Winner of the sixth annual May Swenson Poetry Award, The Owl Question underscores and relishes life’s transitions—from young girl to woman, from child to wife to mother, and from isolation to connection—this poet’s bright sense of abundance and awe, here expressed in finely tuned detail and refreshingly open observation, reads like a collective memory. Though private and closely held, these questionings are as familiar as our own souls, and in their transformation to poetry, Shearin has created the very "map" she wishes to guide her when she "can’t learn the world fast enough." If winter is a house then summer is a window in the bedroom of that house. Sorrow is a river behind the house and happiness is the name of a fish who swims downstream. The unborn child who plays the fragrant garden is named Mavis: her red hair is made of future and her sleek feet are wet with dreams. The cat who naps in the bedroom has his paws in the sun of summer and his tail in the moonlight of change. You and I spend years walking up and down the dusty stairs of the house. Sometimes we stand in the bedroom and the cat walks towards us like a message. Sometimes we pick dandelions from the garden and watch their white heads blow open in our hands. We are learning to fish in the river of sorrow; we are undressing for a swim.Judge for the 2002 May Swenson Award was Mark Doty, internationally known poet, winner of The Bingham Poetry Prize, The T.S. Eliot Prize and many other major poetry awards. The Swenson Poetry Award was named for May Swenson, and honors her as one of America's most provocative and vital poets of the twentieth century. A contemporary and friend of Elizabeth Bishop, Howard Nemerov, and many others, May was, in John Hollander's words, "one of our few unquestionably major poets." She left a legacy of nearly fifty years of writing when she was laid to rest in Logan, Utah, her birthplace and hometown. CONTENTS......Page 8 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS......Page 10 FOREWORD......Page 12 PIANO LESSON......Page 18 HOMECOMING......Page 19 LUCK......Page 20 CHILDHOOD......Page 21 ENTROPY......Page 22 PUBERTY......Page 24 RUINS......Page 25 THE OWL QUESTION......Page 26 WHAT I LIKE......Page 27 RESCUE......Page 28 NUMBERS......Page 29 RETRIEVER......Page 30 INVITATION......Page 32 MATRIMONY......Page 33 ENGAGED......Page 34 AFTER THE WEDDING......Page 35 LUST......Page 36 DESIRE......Page 37 PANDORA......Page 38 THE POST OFFICE......Page 39 THE UNEXPECTANT......Page 40 OUR STORY......Page 42 THE NAME OF A FISH......Page 43 MAGIC......Page 44 FROGS......Page 46 COUNTING......Page 47 INNOCENCE......Page 48 THE SINKING......Page 50 WILL......Page 51 MY PORTRAIT......Page 52 FIELDS......Page 54 FINGERPRINT OF THE VOICE......Page 56 SUMMER......Page 57 FLAT WORLD......Page 58 HUNGER......Page 59 LOVE......Page 61 BECOMING MOTHER......Page 62 CHILDBIRTH REVISITED......Page 63 OPERA......Page 65 ON HALLOWEEN......Page 66 ASHES, ASHES......Page 67 SHOPPING......Page 68 ALONE......Page 69 SPRING FEVER......Page 70 ABOUT THE AUTHOR......Page 72 THE MAY SWENSON POETRY AWARD......Page 74 Winner of the sixth annual May Swenson Poetry Award, The Owl Question underscores and relishes life's transitions from young girl to woman, from child to wife to mother, and from isolation to connection this poet's bright sense of abundance and awe, here expressed in finely tuned detail and refreshingly open observation, reads like a collective memory. Though private and closely held, these questionings are as familiar as our own souls, and in their transformation to poetry, Shearin has created the very "map" she wishes to guide her when she "can't learn the world fast enough." "The Owl Question underscores and relishes life's transitions from young girl to woman, from child to wife to mother, and from isolation to connection this poet's bright sense of abundance and awe, here expressed in finely tuned detail and refreshingly open observation, reads like a collective memory. Though private and closely held, these questionings are as familiar as our own souls, and in their transformation to poetry, Shearin has created the very "map" she wishes to guide her when she "can't learn the world fast enough.""--Publisher's description