by Barton Sutter
American Poets Continuum
Series
Barton
Sutter is one of America's finest poets. His poetry is
earthy and muscular, chiseled from his native midwestern landscape.
Drawing from the narrative, formal tradition of Robert Frost
and E.A. Robinson, Sutter's poems are full of the grist of rural
life -- old farms, old shops, wild mushrooms, beaver dams, roadside
bars and eccentric, but vital people. His verse is so sharp
and unforced that its underlying artistry risks vanishing in
epiphany.
Taconite
Harbor
The
houses stand still, but the people are gone,
As
if somebody had dropped a neutron bomb.
The
families who lived here put their trust
In
a company that cared about money alone.
They
called these look-alike houses home,
A
lie that lasted till the mine went bust.
How
could an entire town be so naive?
You
shake your head in disbelief,
Note
the scrawny trees that cast no shade,
The
asphalt streets where children played,
The
overgrown gardens, the scruffy lawns,
The
way the picture windows seem to yawn.
There
was never a church, a school, or a store,
And
nobody has lived here in a year or more.
Some
houses will be moved, the rest torn down.
No
one ever lived here. There's no such town.
Available editions:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cloth
ISBN: 1-880238-96-5
Price: $25.00
Publishing Date: January 1993
Paperback
ISBN: 1-880238-97-3
Price: $10.00
Publishing Date: January 1993
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