Planning My Escape: Poetry by Mary Jo Homstad

By Mary Jo Homstad and Greg Brown

A sparkling collection of poetry from the late Iowa poet Mary Jo Homstad (1947-1978). A sensitive and witty craftsperson shares her sense of magic in the people and unique landscape of northeast Iowa, her struggles with the chaos of love and her confrontations with the mystery of death. In his moving Foreword, folk artist Greg Brown writes that

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springwater Road
• Release date: Jan 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9780578823805

Mary Jo Homstad

Mary Jo Homstad was born on March 21, 1947. She died in an automobile accident on December 1, 1978 at the age of 31. The daughter of Dr. Joseph Homstad and Lucy Hanson Homstad, Mary grew up in Denver Colorado. In 1965 she enrolled at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, where she received a BA in English in 1969. After graduation she spent a year teaching English in Japan. She lived in rural Decorah. Mary had many jobs, but she always saw herself as a poet. She would fill small notebooks with thoughts, phrases, overheard dialogue, drafts of poems and quotations from her favorite writers. When she had accumulated several notebooks, she would transcribe and revise the thoughts and poems into a large hardbound volume. She had created several of these volumes when she died. In 1980 her mother Lucy, with the help of Mary's brother Joe and editor Douglas Anderson, put together a book of poems and drawings from Mary's journals called Weavings. The first print run of 600 copies led to a second printing.

Book preview

Planning My Escape

Mary Jo Homstad

===== Springwater road =====

Decorah, Iowa

2020

Copyright Page

Published by

Springwater Road Publishing

3112 Springwater Road

Decorah, Iowa 52101

Copyright © 2020 by Carl Homstad

Most of the poems in this book were previously published in Weavings by Mary Jo Homstad (Bread & Butter Press, Denver, 1980), comprised of poems selected by Lucy Hanson Homstad following her daughter's death.

ISBN 978-0-578-82380-5

Cover design: Carl Homstad

Cover drawing: Mary Jo Homstad

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

To Lucy Hanson Homstad

Table Of Contents

* Poems appearing in print for the first time.

Contents

Copyright Page

Dedication

Table Of Contents

Note on New Poems

Foreword by Greg Brown

Introduction

A Sense of Place

Iowa Countryside

Iowa Summer Poem

In Decorah Today

Decorah

dana

Farm Picnic

Canning Tomatoes

Smalltown, Iowa

Iowa Landscape

Conversation with John

Iowa

Leaving Home

Life’s Lessons

How to Catch A Husband

To Katherine

Woman, thy womb ...

Just before Winter in Iowa

He is miserly with his words ...

Keosauqua

* Des Moines

Machine Shop Poem

Innocence

Departure

A Train Ride Across Russia

Traveling Through Russia

* Today, Junk Shops

Learning to Tell Time

Used-Book Store

I remember ...

Gossamer voices

I see dolphins ...

Mr. Golden and His Circus

A Windy Day in Letts, Iowa

* Rain fingers the windows ...

* Profile of a Listener

The Guest

Love and Family

How to Love a Turtle

Messages

You.

My voice cracked like ice ...

World Affairs

Unrequited Love

Fantasy

He who I thought ...

In the Field

I look at maps ...

Steel-toothed young handsome ...

A Lover Like Fall

Conversations with My Father

My Father

My Mother’s Poem

A Birthday Poem

Lately when you walk through my mind . . .

Children

Promise

High school girls giggle ...

The evening wind blows ...

Lullaby

Thoughts on Children

poem

Twilight

To Mike

The boy put his head ...

Nature

I sleep outside ...

The cat eats a fly ...

Placid cows ...

Slaughter on the Highways

Fourth of July

Refuge

Ode to Johanna

Moonlight, the swan . . .

October Time of Night

The Life of a poet

A Poem to Storytellers Everywhere

* I seem to be waiting ...

i lie about my poetry ...

ever since the first word ...

One summer I was wedded to poetry ...

Writing Class: County Care Facility

A Skeleton of a Poem

To Mark

Crossing Spoon River in Illinois

* The Craft

* Oh, I have written enough sappy notes ...

Myths

We build our poems with lean speech ...

The Muse

No Place to Say

When One Can’t Speak

Visiting Mr. Emerson’s House at Concord

Four haiku

A Poem to Greg Brown

Ridicule

Tangled in the Sky

The Forming of a Poet

Contemplation

* A Moment

Make Straight the Way of the Lord

Prayer

Architects of the Universe ...

Shall I hit the fly ...

Old Poem

Being dreamers ...

I sense salvation in grey men ...

Second Week Alone, Tucson Desert

The monkey is reaching for the moon ...

Come with me . . .

Dark envelope of sleep

old woman

* Things move so fast ...

Jehovah Witness Visit

Source

Planning My Escape I

Planning My Escape II

Planning My Escape III

it is noon ...

The baby and Cosmo ...

Making Puppets

Chanting for My God

A Conversation

* Bizzy

* Why I Was Late

Mortality

Death in the Iowa Winter

Self-portrait

Jock

Jock II

A Small Poem for Ralph

* Nursing Home Visit

Father William

Auction

Miss Brooks - 1977

Working at the Cafe

Cradles to Death

Clothes

Restaurant

To My Grandmother, Dying During a Snowstorm

The Gift

Weaving

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Note on New Poems