This is Michael Carey for Voices from the Prairie a weekly sampling from the rich soil of Iowa’s literary tradition. Today’s poem is "Here" by Council Bluffs native Gary Anderson. I’m not sure where "here" is, but it feels like home. The place you came from, the place you’ll go and where you always lived know it or not. Maybe its that calm silent place we stand outside of when we witness our lives -- wherever we are.
Come to the place you’ve always
lived.
See the people you’ve always known.
Watch the things they do. Know you are one of them.
Call. They will come.
And when they do, tell them what you have to say.
They will listen. Then they will tell you
what you’ve always known.
Let it be said that this is not what
you wanted.
Do not say all turned out fine. It did not.
Say that you tried, and when you failed
you were brave. When you could not be brave,
you suffered silently. And when you could not be silent,
you raged. And when your rage failed,
you came here.
"Here" by Gary Anderson from Voices on the Landscape: Contemporary Iowa Poets published by Loess Hills Books of Farragut.
For Voices from the Prairie and Humanities Iowa, this is Michael Carey hoping you continue to hear the music blooming all around you.
Biography
Gary Anderson was born in Council Bluffs and later lived in Boone an Madrid. He is a graduate of Wartburg College and Iowa State University. His poems have appeared in Bluff City, California State Poetry Quarterly, Whetstone, Amelia, ELF and numerous other literary magazines as well as the baseball anthology Mudville Diaries (Avon Books). He received an Illinois Arts Council Award in 1996. He currently lives in suburban Chicago.