Practicing to Walk Like a Heron

By Jack Ridl

In Practicing to Walk Like a Heron multiple-award-winning Michigan poet Jack Ridl shares lines of well-earned wisdom in the face of a constantly changing world. The familiar comforts of life-a warm fire in winter, a lush garden in summer-become the settings for transcendent and universal truths in these poems, as moments of grief, sadness, and melancholy trigger a deeper appreciation for small but important joys. The simple clarity of Ridl's lines and diction make the poems accessible to all readers, but especially rewarding for those who appreciate carefully honed, masterful verse.

Many of the poems take solace in nature-quiet deer outside in the woods, deep snow, a thrush's empty nest in the eaves-as well as man-made things in the world-a steamer trunk, glass jars, tea cups, and books piled high near an easy chair. Yet Ridl avoids becoming nostalgic or romantic in his surroundings, and shows that there is nothing easy in his celebration of topics like "The Letters," "But He Loved His Dog," "A Christmas List for Santa," and "The Enormous Mystery of Couples." An interlude of full-color pages divides Ridl's more personal poems d experiential in life. This relatable and emotionally powerful volume will appeal to all poetry readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Release date: Feb 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9780814335390

Jack Ridl

Jack Ridl is professor of English at Hope College, Holland, Michigan. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and poetry journals. Broken Symmetry is his third volume of poetry. Ridl has also published three chapbooks, two college literary textbooks, two literary anthologies, and is recipient of several awards for his teaching of young poets.

Book preview

MADE IN MICHIGAN WRITERS SERIES

General Editors

Michael Delp, Interlochen Center for the Arts

M. L. Liebler, Wayne State University

Advisory Editors

Melba Joyce Boyd

Wayne State University

Stuart Dybek

Western Michigan University

Kathleen Glynn

Jerry Herron

Wayne State University

Laura Kasischke

University of Michigan

Thomas Lynch

Frank Rashid

Marygrove College

Doug Stanton

Keith Taylor

University of Michigan

A complete listing of the books in this series can be found online at wsupress.wayne.edu.

Practicing to Walk

LIKE A HERON

Poems by

JACK RIDL

WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS

DETROIT

© 2013 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Manufactured in the United States of America.

17 16 15 14 13                5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Ridl, Jack.

Practicing to walk like a heron : poems / by Jack Ridl.

p. cm. — (Made in Michigan writers series)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8143-3453-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) —

I. Title.

PS3568.I3593P73 2013

811’.54--dc23

2012027175

Publication of this book was made possible by a generous gift from The Meijer Foundation.

ISBN 978-0-8143-3539-0 (e-book)

For Vivian and Bruce

For Julie and Meridith

For my mother, father, and sister

And for John Bartley

Contents

Acknowledgments

Write to Your Unknown Friends

1. FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOUR HOUSE

It’s Hard to Know Where to Begin

From Our House to Your House

Growing Up in a Small Town

Easter, 1948

Hands

Ridl Was Once Spelled Hridl

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

My Father Was in Love with Peggy Lee

Open to the Psalms

The Steps of Pittsburgh

It Wasn’t Folklore

Thinking of Yahweh During a Winter Thaw

On My Parents’ Sixty-fifth Wedding Anniversary

An Afternoon Visiting My Mother in Assisted Living

The Days

A New Beginning

The Letters

Fractals: A Nocturne

Searching Again for My Father

2. THE ENORMOUS MYSTERY OF COUPLES

Suite For the Turning Year

On Going with My Wife to Her Doctor

The Enormous Mystery of Couples

Theme and Variations

Oh I Suppose

Here in the Time Between

Practicing to Walk Like a Heron

Some Notes Taken While the Media Try to Come to Terms with the Life and Death of Michael Jackson

With

Morning Rounds

Christmas, the Execution of Tookie Williams

The Neighbors

William Blake’s Hiccoughs

After Talking It Over

Just Before He Had Another Panic Attack

Mid-October Morning

Ron Howard’s on the Cover of AARP

Take Love for Granted

My Wife Has Sent Me an Email

A Quiet Study in Black and Gray

Speaking Objectively in Winter

Raking the Duck Weed

Putting Away the Santas

Hardship in a Nice Place

The End of This Year

Have You Heard the One About?

It’s April and It Should Be Spring

Epilogue

INTERLUDE: HEY SKINNY, THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN!

Circus: Late Summer

Outside the Center Ring

Grouse of the Circus Boss

After the Lion Tamer

Sequins

Daydreams of the Catcher of the Queen of the Air

Suzie

The Death of the Queen of the Air

Circus Cook

The End of the Fat Lady

Death in the Dog Act

The Children of the Lion Tamer

Roustabout

Clown

The Balloon Man

Night on the Circus Lot

Winter Quarters

3. THE HIDDEN PERMUTATIONS OF SORROW

The Two Chairs in the Garden

What Are You Supposed to Do Anyway?

Within the Moment of Indefinite Suffering

The Hidden Permutations of Sorrow

Listening to Chopin in Early Winter

At the As the Spirit Moves Poetry Reading

Instead of Planting Roses

The Man Who Loved Mulch

After Midnight: Insomnia’s Solace

A Man I Know

Moose. Indian.

Several Old People Are Walking by Our Window

A List of Possibilities in an Uncertain Order

He Brings Home Everything

Monet’s Winter on the Seine, Lavacourt

Preludes

Another Puppet Show

The Reunion

The Dogs’ Door Is at the Far End of the House

The Artist to the Canvas

A Christmas List for Santa

But He Loved His Dog

A Cabinet of Natural Curiosities

The Yearling with the Broken Leg

Another Day in Your Life

The Knitters

Drinking Black Tea Early in the Morning

For Lenny

A Generous Welcome

After Spending the Morning Baking Bread

Return to a Place I Don’t Remember

The Heron

Acknowledgments

I thank the editors of the following journals for publishing many of these poems, some in different forms:

Alligator Juniper, Artful Dodge, Basilica Review, Big City Lit, Cairn, Chariton Review, Colorado Review, Controlled Burn, Crab Orchard Review, Dogwood, The Driftwood Review, Dunes Review, Eclipse, 5AM, Free Lunch, Harpur Palate, I-70 Review, The Listening Eye, Louisville Review, Michigan Quarterly, Mid-America Review, Nashville Review, National Wetlands Journal, Natural Bridge, North American Review, Pebble Lake Review, Peninsula Writers Anthology, Plainspoke, Poetry East, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Sou’wester, Sycamore Review, Talking River Review, Temenos, Toad, Water-Stone Review

The poems Hands and The Reunion were featured on The Writer’s Almanac.

The group of circus poems was published as a chapbook titled Outside the Center Ring (Pudding House Press).

Easter, 1948 was awarded the Gary Gildner Award for Poetry from the I-70 Review.

Thanks to Myra Kohsel and Sarah Baar for their generous help in preparing many of these poems.

Thanks to daughter Meridith for creating the art on the cover. And thanks to the wonders at Wayne State University Press—Maya Whelan, Carrie Downes Teefey, Emily Nowak, Lindsey Alexander, Sarah Murphy. Without your work and support and joy, this collection would never have come into being. Deep thanks to Jane Bach and Greg Rappleye, who helped every one of these poems.

And gratitude over and over again to Annie Martin, who believed in the work.

My heart’s deepest thanks to all of you who have helped these poems along their way. My hope is that you know who you are and that you know how grateful I am.

"Write to Your

Reviews for Practicing to Walk Like a Heron

[cjservis · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed his poetry. Filled with wistful nostalgia of family and interesting observations from daily life.