I wouldn’t write at all if it weren’t
for myriad writers before me whose works showed me what was possible. The poems
of this series are small offerings of respect, of thanks, to those muses. –
Brian Beatty
Philip Levine
My late
grandmother
believed in her Bible
as well
as all the old
superstitions.
Rocking an empty
rocking chair,
for instance, invited
death
or something worse
into your home.
From her cold senior
citizen apartment
up on the fourth floor
to escape
the fires of Hell she
sent money
she couldn’t spare to
her favorite
call-in radio
evangelists.
When you visited, you
prayed
and watched whatever
show was playing
on her tiny
black-and-white TV.
– Brian Beatty
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Brian's recent collections of poetry are Dust and Stars: Miniatures and Brazil, Indiana.
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Levine was among my first favorite poets because his poems told vivid stories of working class people not unlike folks I knew.
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