[New-Poetry] Fw: American Life in Poetry: Column 140

[Anny Ballardini]

>
> American Life in Poetry: Column 140
>
> BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006
>
poem by Steven Schneider>
>
> Chanukah Lights Tonight
>
> Our annual prairie Chanukah party--
> latkes, kugel, cherry blintzes.
> Friends arrive from nearby towns
> and dance the twist to "Chanukah Lights Tonight,"
> spin like a dreidel to a klezmer hit.
>
> The candles flicker in the window.
> Outside, ponderosa pines are tied in red bows.
> If you squint,
> the neighbors' Christmas lights
> look like the Omaha skyline.
>
> The smell of oil is in the air.
> We drift off to childhood
> where we spent our gelt
> on baseball cards and matinees,
> cream sodas and potato knishes.
>
> No delis in our neighborhood,
> only the wind howling over the crushed corn stalks.
> Inside, we try to sweep the darkness out,
> waiting for the Messiah to knock,
> wanting to know if he can join the party.
>
>
>
> American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation 
> (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also 
> supported by the Department of English at the University of 
> Nebraska-Lincoln. Reprinted from "Prairie Air Show," Talking River 
> Publications, 2000, by permission of Steven Schneider. Poem copyright (c) 
> 2000 by Steven Schneider. Introduction copyright (c) 2007 by The Poetry 
> Foundation.  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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> free weekly column  featuring contemporary American poems. The sole 
> mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry 
> seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are 
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>