Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Great Regulars: When I complained

about some of the tedious jobs I had as a boy, my mother would tell me, Ted, all work is honorable. In this poem, Don Welch gives us a man who's been fixing barbed wire fences all his life.

from Ted Kooser: American Life in Poetry: Column 056

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3 comments :

Unknown said...

I find Welch's poem peculiarly comforting. So often it seems as though hard work is not worth it: so many cheap shortcuts tempt even the most wary. But here is a poem that celebrates doing something "right" despite the resulting scars and ultimate fragility of life.

As Kooser's mother said, "all work is honorable." I'd really like to believe in that sentiment.

Rus Bowden said...

Hi Christine,

I love Don Welch's use of color. I know that's almost trite, but the blue for the crowbar, and the blue in his hands, the hands like a landscape, and the sky pewter. It's all nicely done, and gives me a sense of having been right there, seeing his hands and wrists and all.

Yours,
Rus

Unknown said...

Rus, I hadn't thought of the color as an image at first, but now that you've mentioned it, I can see how it ties the poem together.

In the link you provided, I read the poem, "After a Blizzard," and he uses color again in that poem. It is not so blatant as in "At the Edge of Town," but he uses the whiteness and the "blur" of a blizzard to make a statement, nonetheless.

I am so pleased to have found a new poet whose work I admire. Thanks. :-)