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Column 108

Houdini

Intro by Ted Kooser
04.25.2007

Hou­di­ni nev­er gets far from the news. There’s always a movie com­ing out, or a book, and every oth­er magi­cian has to face com­par­i­son to the leg­endary mas­ter. Here the Cal­i­for­nia poet, Kay Ryan, encap­su­lates the man and says some­thing wise about celebrity. 

Houdini

Each escape
involved some art,
some hokum, and
at least a brief
incomprehensible
exchange between
the man and metal
during which the
chains were not
so much broken
as he and they
blended. At the
end of each such
mix he had to
extract himself. It
was the hardest
part to get right
routinely: breaking
back into the
same Houdini.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions. 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. Used by permission of the author. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.