Photography And Half-Thoughts By Mitchell Hegman

...because some of it is pretty and some of it is not.

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

For Jennifer, 6, on the Teton

Somewhere in the late 1970s, while browsing through a bookstore in Helena, Montana, I found a collection of his poems titled What Thou Lovest Well Remains American.  Inside the book, written by Richard Hugo, a poet teaching at the University of Montana, I found the most remarkable verses.

Hugo gave voice to the working man.  He wrote poems about drinking in local bars.  He wrote poems about towns, rivers, and places in Montana I knew.

I found myself intrigued.   I stood there in the bookstore reading and reading and reading the book.  Then I turned to a poem titled For Jennifer, 6, on the Teton.  I paused for a long time after reading the first stanza:

“These open years, the river

sings 'Jennifer Jennifer.'

Riverbeds are where we run to learn

laws of bounce and run.

You know moon. You know your name is silver.”

I read the lines again.  And again.  I felt I was reading a kind of music.

I purchased the book.   A week later, I found more books of poems by Hugo.

Today, on the bookshelves in my den, you will find a shelf dedicated to contemporary poetry.  After reading Hugo, I wanted to hear more from other voices.

Simple, gorgeous words.

“You know your name is silver.”    

Mitchell Hegman

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