FOUR MORE "THAT WOMAN" POEMS
by Tom Montag
She is not
shadow, that woman.
She is not
the mist. She is
vapor at the blue
edge of flame.
*
That woman
walks. The wind
walks with her.
They talk.
They speak
of nothing,
everything.
*
She is the motion
she makes, that woman,
the gesture, the sound.
She is the silence
on holy ground.
*
All this shake
of day and night,
that woman says,
all the lay
of shade and light,
all the bounding
silence, the green
streak of earth.
All the sky.
Everything
today. Amen.
Tom Montag of Fairwater, Wisconsin, is a middlewestern poet and essayist who has published numerous books of prose and poetry since 1972. His most recent work includes: Curlew: Home (memoir, 2001), Kissing Poetry's Sister (essays about writing and being a writer, 2002), The Sweet Bite of Morning (poems, 2003), and The Big Book of Ben Zen (poems, 2004). Middle Ground (1982) serves as his collected earlier poems. The Sweet Bite of Morning is from Montag's on-going project, "Plain Poems: A Fairwater Daybook." Montag is preparing two more collections of essays for publication, The Idea of the Local and Personal Papers and he continues to work at his long-term exploration of the middlewest, "Vagabond In the Middle." He is currently teaching Advanced Composition for Lakeland College, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Along with Paul Zimmer, he was a featured writer at Lakeland's Great Lakes Writers Program on November 4-5, 2004. In February, 2005, he was a Tom McGrath Visiting Writer at Minnesota State University in Moorhead. In October, 2005, Montag delivered a presentation about his Vagabond project at the Marshall Festival - Celebration of Rural Writers and Rural Writing in Marshall, Minnesota. He will be reading at the Beloit Public Library on April 22 and at the University of Wisconsin-Stout on April 27. He will also read at the Wisconsin Writer's Conference in Baraboo this June and will make a presentation there on "Lorine's Toolbox: A Working Poet Examines Niedecker's Poetics." In September he will present "Writing Poetry Successfully: 99 Propositions" for the annual convention of the Wisconsin Regional Writer's Association. Christine Townsend's interview with Montag, conducted in October, 2003, can be read here; Peter Stephens interview with him in July, 2004, can be read here.
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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.
That Woman.......keep listening to her!
Have you read Rudolfo Anaya's short novel Bless Me Ultima? I believe that you would enjoy it.
Posted by: Fred Garber | June 19, 2006 at 10:26 AM
Thanks, Fred--I will keep listening to that woman!
As for Bless Me Ultima, yes, likely I would enjoy it if I could get past of one my unbending principles: Life is too short for fiction.
Yeah, yeah, I know what everybody says... but it holds no sway. I don't know why I believe that, but I do.
Posted by: Tom Montag | June 19, 2006 at 07:23 PM
This Tom Montag fellow is all right, for a poet. And this "that woman" seems almost familiar - as I guess she should.
Posted by: Dave | June 20, 2006 at 08:14 PM
This Tom Montag fellow hears you, Dave. Thanks.
Posted by: Tom Montag | June 21, 2006 at 05:31 AM