Trombone by Norman Dubie

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend February 3, 2016   Trombone   Norman Dubie

for Mari   There were carols on the kitchen radio, a late cold night, entering the room while straightening the blistered Navajo rug, I remembered suddenly what the first eight notes of hark, the herald angels sing felt like vibrating through my body that first time— I was eleven and unprepared, I remembered when I was ten and fainting in church from the sweet ammonia of Easter lilies hosing my nostrils with fragrance and also the emptiness of it—the lord of the dance, in an arc of agony, up on sticks…            Copyright © 2016 Norman Dubie. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   “Oddly though I had no gifts as a musician, when physically making music I always enjoyed the way images volunteered in my mind along with the music. I believe Denise Levertov wrote an interesting essay on this with respect to Rilke and cows crying out in wild pasturage—also something about playing the grooves on the inner skull of human beings with a cactus stylus in the early tradition of the phonograph. Anyhow, I think it’s safe to say that, for my family, my music lessons in the house were very painful like hanging from a cross.” —Norman Dubie   Norman Dubie is the author of The Quotations of Bone (Copper Canyon Press, 2015). He teaches at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.   Photo credit: Chris Pichler Poetry by Dubie   The Quotations of Bone (Copper Canyon Press, 2015) "Storm Ending" by Jean Toomer "Drench" by Anne Stevenson "Radar Data #12" by Lytton Smith Poem-a-Day   Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-a-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. 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.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038