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Column 250

(Untitled)

Intro by Ted Kooser
01.03.2010

I’m very fond of poems that demon­strate their authors’ atten­tive­ness to the world about them, as reg­u­lar read­ers of this col­umn have no doubt noticed. Here is a nine-word poem by Joette Gior­gis, who lives in Penn­syl­va­nia, that is based upon notic­ing and then think­ing about some­thing so ordi­nary that it might oth­er­wise be over­looked. Even the sep­a­rate words are flat and com­mon­place. But so much feel­ing comes through! 

(Untitled)

children grown—
dust accumulates
on half the kitchen table

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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 ©2009 by Joette Giorgis and reprinted from Modern Haiku, Vol. 40.1, Winter-Spring 2009, by permission of Joette Giorgis and the publisher.
Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.