| InterBoard Poetry Competition | |
TO GO MILES IN
Charles Cornner
(Desert Moon Review)
There is fortunate air tonight. Not a hint
of choking gas; canaries sing
that truth. Earth rumbles the vein,
creaks the locust poles that stand
between us and the world.
We cough black dust and prophesy.
Helmet lamps dim our sight
and narrow our view. At dark day’s end,
the squeaking elevator lifts us to the night,
to dump our pickax and shovel in a box,
and walk to the company town to close
our eyes to still more black.
Judge Wayne Miller’s comment: “‘To Go Miles In’ seems to partially echo Blake’s ‘Chimney Sweeper’ poems (especially the second [A little black thing among the snow,], which it echoes in structure as well as content), and also Phillip Levine’s poems that center on the subject of work. (There are of course other predecessors, but these are two that immediately jump to mind.) I find this poem compelling for its straightforwardness, acuity of detail, and clarity of voice. Through a subdued tone, the speaker deftly stacks up descriptions that build a picture of mining work’s oppressive nature; two of my favorite descriptive details are: ‘Earth... creaks the locust poles that stand // between us and the world,’ and ‘Helmet lamps dim our sight / and narrow our view.’ Then, as we ride the ‘squeaking elevator’ with the speaker into night, we realize there’s little respite from such isolation and oppression in ‘the company town,’ where sleep simply closes ‘our eyes to still more black.’ That final image feels just about perfect to me--evocative yet quiet, resonant in its bleak near-silence.”
About the InterBoard Poetry Competition
Archive of IBPC Winners
3rd Place Winner, November 2003
