Poem-A-Day: Coming and Going by Tony Hoagland

November 25, 2013 Coming and Going by Tony Hoagland My marriage ended in an airport long ago.  I was not wise enough to cry while looking for my car,    walking through the underground garage;  jets were roaring overhead, and if I had been wise    I would have looked up at those heavy-bellied cylinders  and seen the wheelchairs and the frightened dogs inside;    the kidneys bedded in dry ice and Styrofoam containers.  I would have known that in synagogues and churches all over  town    couples were gathering like flocks of geese  getting ready to take off, while here the jets were putting down    their gear, getting ready for the jolt, the giant tires  shrieking and scraping off two    long streaks of rubber molecules,  that might have been my wife and I, screaming in our fear.    It is a matter of amusement to me now,  me staggering around that underground garage,    trying to remember the color of my vehicle,  unable to recall that I had come by cab--    eventually gathering myself and going back inside,  quite matter-of-fact,    to get the luggage  I would be carrying for the rest of my life.   Copyright © 2013 by Tony Hoagland. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "So much of what I love about poetry lies in the vast possibilities of voice, the spectacular range of idiosyncratic flavors that can be embedded in a particular human voice reporting from the field. One beautiful axis of voice is the one that runs between vulnerability and detachment, between 'It hurts to be alive' and 'I can see a million miles from here.' A good poetic voice can do both at once." --Tony Hoagland  Most Recent Book by Hoagland Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (Graywolf Press, 2010)            Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.   Tony Hoagland's most recent book of poems is Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (Graywolf Press, 2010). He teaches at the University of Houston and in Warren Wilson's low-residency MFA program.    Related Poems Family Reunion  by Jeredith Merrin I May After Leaving You Walk Quickly or Even Run  by Matthea Harvey  Chaos Is the New Calm  by Wyn Cooper  __________________________ Rae Armantrout is the judge for the 2014 Walt Whitman first book award. Submit your manuscript online. Deadline: December 1.     Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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