EARTH ~

Hettie Jones

Hard Drive



Saturday the stuffed bears were up again
over the Major Deegan
dancing in plastic along the bridge rail
under a sky half misty, half blue
and there were white clouds
blowing in from the west


which would have been enough
for one used to pleasure
in small doses


But then later, at sunset
driving north along the Saw Mill
in a high wind, with clouds big and drifting
above the road like animals
proud of their pink underbellies,
in a moment of intense light
I saw an Edward Hopper house,
at once so exquisitely light and dark
that I cried, all the way up Route 22
those uncontrollable tears
"as though the body were crying"


and so young women
here's the dilemma


itself the solution:


I have always been at the same time
woman enough to be moved to tears
and man enough
to drive my car in any direction





from Drive
(Hanging Loose Press, 1998)

HETTIE JONES HAS BEEN POET, TEACHER (SCHOOLS & PRISONS), EDITOR, PUBLISHER. MOTHER, LOVER LONGER THAN MOST CAN REMEMBER. DRIVE IS HER FIRST FULL COLLECTION OF POEMS AND HOW I BECAME HETTIE JONES IS HER MEMOIR. HER MANY BOOKS FOR CHILDREN ARE VERY WELL KNOWN.




photo : nymag.com