Michigan – POETRY and PLACES

Hamlin Lake, Michigan, 1940s by Joan Colby

Hamlin Lake, Michigan, 1940sby Joan Colby A smell of damp, of mildewPermeated the cottage, lakeside,Built of simple unfinished planks,Nothing polished or complicated,Floorboards, thin wallsSo every conversation could be overheard. A red pump by the chipped sinkThat groaned to expel tinged water.A woodstove my mother cursedAs we stood dripping from our lake bathsHolding bars of Ivory,Continue reading “Hamlin Lake, Michigan, 1940s by Joan Colby”

January in Detroit or Search for Tomorrow Starring Ken and Ann by Ken Mikolowski

January in Detroit or Search for Tomorrow Starring Ken and Ann by Ken Mikolowski I think it is interesting though not exactly amusing how we go from day to day with no money. How do we do it, friends ask, suspecting we really have some stash stacked away somewhere. But we certainly do not andContinue reading “January in Detroit or Search for Tomorrow Starring Ken and Ann by Ken Mikolowski”

The World Book by Patricia Hooper

The World Book by Patricia Hooper When the woman in blue sergeheld up the sun, my motheropened the storm door, takingthe whole volume of Sinto her hands. The sunshown as a sun should,and we sat down at the tableleafing through silks and ships,saints and subtraction. We passedScotland and Spain, street-cars and seeds and eventhe Seven WondersContinue reading “The World Book by Patricia Hooper”

Along Lake Michigan by Brad Leithauser

Along Lake Michiganby Brad Leithauser The road abruptly changed to dirt,Thinned until grasses brushedThe car on both sides, and thenEnded in a loop before the marsh.We hiked along an arm of land heldFirm by cedars, the lake breakingLike an ocean on one side,The rippling, flooded wetlands wideAs a lake on the other.You found a broadContinue reading “Along Lake Michigan by Brad Leithauser”

Belle Isle, 1949 by Philip Levine (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Belle Isle, 1949by Philip Levine We stripped in the first warm spring nightand ran down into the Detroit Riverto baptize ourselves in the brineof car parts, dead fish, stolen bicycles,melted snow. I remember going underhand in hand with a Polish highschool girlI’d never seen before, and the criesour breath made caught at the same timeonContinue reading “Belle Isle, 1949 by Philip Levine (Detroit, Michigan, USA)”