NO SCHOOL TODAY
by Phil Hey
Sioux City Community schools, no school
Anthon-Oto two hours late, buses run accordingly,
buses run accordingly at Wisner-Pilger,
two hours late at Ponca, check that, no school
at Ponca, school at Moville
two hours late two hours late at Sergeant Bluff-Luton,
no school at Wakefield, no buses, no Head Start,
Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn two hours late,
Heelan no school, South Sioux no school,
no buses, IBP first shift two hours late,
Sons of Scandinavia Pancake Dinner cancelled,
buses run accordingly, wind chill thirty below,
Interbake first shift canceled, no school
Sacred Heart no school, Immaculate Conception
no school, Nativity no school, St. Michael’s
no school, buses running two hours late,
buses not running, second shift on time,
that’s on time, call your supervisor,
Albert Einstein no school, William Shakespeare
no school, Walt Whitman no school, Francis Bacon
no school, Isaac Newton no school, Frederick Douglass
no school, George Washington no school
Duke Ellington no school, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
no school,
light snow blowing snow thirteen degrees
windchill forty-three below, buses not running
people not running, no school no school
no school no buses no people no school.
"No School Today" appeared previously in Phil Hey's How It Seems To Me: New & Selected Poems (MWPH Books, 2004) available from Tom Montag, PO Box 8, Fairwater, WI 53931 for $12.50 + $2 s&h. Phil Hey has been writing and teaching at Briar Cliff University since 1969, and he is now a professor in the English/Writing Department. He received a B.A. in English at Monmouth College in 1964 and an M.F.A. at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop in 1966. He also studied creative writing under Gwendolyn Brooks at the University of Wisconsin. In 1992 he won Briar Cliff's Duff Award for the Pursuit of Excellence, and in 1998 he was given the Literacy Award for college English teachers by the Iowa Council of Teachers of English and Language Arts. Published in numerous magazines and anthologies, Phil is the author of several collections of poetry: In Plain Sight, Reorganizing the Stars, Plain Label Poems, A Change of Clothes, Ballads & Songs. His poem "Route 39 south of Pittsville" won a Rainmaker Award from Zone 3 magazine. He has also received a dozen commissions for poems, most recently from the Sisters of St. Francis in Dubuque. As an editor, Phil has co-edited the Iowa Poets series with Zachary Pearce of Pterodactyl Press, including Michael Carey's The Noise the Earth Makes, Ann Struthers' Stoneboat, and James Hearst's posthumous A Country Man. He also edits for Celestial Light Press and The Briar Cliff Review, Briar Cliff's national prize-winning magazine of writing and art. He assisted Michael Carey in the editing of Voices on the Landscape: Contemporary Iowa Poets (Loess Hills Books).
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A NOTE TO THE POETS OUT THERE
I'm interested in considering your "poems of place" for publication in The Middlewesterner's "Saturday's Poem" feature; send two or three of your best in the body of an e-mail addressed to [email protected] . Put "Saturday's Poem" in the subject line. Then be patient. I will get back to you about whether I'll use your work or not. Send along a short biographical note and information about where your books can be purchased and I'll include that when your poem runs. There's no payment involved for having your work appear in "Saturday's Poem," but the feature is seen by some few high class readers. Click here for complete index of and access to "Saturday's Poems" poems published prior to September 18, 2004.
YEAH! Brilliant.
Posted by: Dave | January 15, 2005 at 06:52 PM