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Column 147

"I stand alone at the foot "

Intro by Ted Kooser
01.23.2008

Our ear­li­est rec­ol­lec­tions are often imprint­ed in our mem­o­ries because they were asso­ci­at­ed with some kind of stress. Here, in an unti­tled poem, the Nebras­ka State Poet, William Kloe­fko­rn, brings back a dif­fi­cult moment from many years before, and makes a late confession: 

"I stand alone at the foot "

I stand alone at the foot
Of my father’s grave,
Trembling to tell:
The door to the granary is open,
Sir,
And someone lost the bucket
To the well.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

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. Poem copyright © 2004 by William Kloefkorn, whose most recent book of poetry is Still Life Moving, WSC Press, 2007, illustrated with pastel paintings by Carlos Frey. Reprinted from Alvin Turner As Farmer, Logan House, 2004, by permission of the author and publisher. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.