Cross Country: A Reading of Poems

By Kevin Thornburgh

Cross Country is a collection of poems, tracing a journey from Pomona, California, to Union Station, Los Angeles, in which the poet picks up a hitchhiker whose name is the same as his long-dead sister. Poems fill the spaces of the journey, and the two finally get to Los Angeles.

Additional poems that stand on their own are included. The poems of the book are serious, funny, happy, and sada mix of the elements of the form.

Cross Country, the title, refers to the cross-country travel, the sport of running called cross-country, and the cross itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543425925

Kevin Thornburgh

Kevin Thornburgh began his serious Writing in 1982, upon graduation from college. He next Studied with Ionna Veronika Warwick at Beyond Baroque in her Poet’s workshop in Venice, CA; Catherine Erickson at the University Of La Verne; Lisa Steinman at Reed College, after winning a National Endowment For the Humanities; and finally, with Alma Luz Villanueva, Frank Gaspar, and Tim Seibles at The MFA program of Antioch University, LA. The poet was born in 1959, in Monterey Park, CA. He Attended Covina High School and was a runner and A writer there. He became a cross country coach and English teacher, following that. He is semi-retired, Working currently on a novel about the Civil War.

Book preview

Copyright © 2017 by Kevin Thornburgh.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2017908279

      ISBN:      Hardcover      978-1-5434-2594-9

                     Softcover       978-1-5434-2593-2

                     eBook              978-1-5434-2592-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 05/23/2017

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Contents

Feeding The Sparrows

Introduction

Cal Poly

The Seriousness Of Such Things

Tom Pate

Chet’s Jets

Racing

Graduation Practice

Jasmine

Tree

Doug

Train To Texas

Train Trip

Louise

My Former Wife

El Monte Lions—1985

Teaching

The Young Coach

Both Schools—77 And 87

Binh Ngyuen

San Gabriel Mission

Mother Teresa

Wozniak

Decision

Mom

Return

Philippe’s Restaurant

Chinatown

Union Station

Audrey, My Sister

Additional Poems

Palm Sunday

That Sweet Lowdown

Monterey Park 3

Chinese Woman

Chinese Poems (Obviously By A Howlie)

Was It First Here?

The Emptiman

Look At The Grass, Look At The Trees

Consciousness

Love Poems

A trip from Pomona to Union Station, Los Angeles

A drive with Audrey

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Feeding the Sparrows

Strange to think of you now,

Thirty years later, as if I’ve

Been working on only this

One poem, like a tortoise

That’s been buried in dirt

For years in someone’s

Backyard; strange now to

Think of you at four AM—

You left like a hummingbird

After drinking sweet water

While I’ve been feeding doves

And sparrows; strange to

Think of you now as Trump

Builds his wall, and I don’t know

What side you’ll be on, only

That I’ll never see you again—

You had a right to say what

You said; no was always a

Possible answer, but you had

Memorized the word yes.

What have you