ITHACA, N.Y. (WHCU) — A pair of Ithaca College poets recently won prizes.
Eric Machan Howd and Kathryn Howd Machan received awards at the Dancing Poetry Festival in California. Kathryn says students infuse her with energy.
Eric echoes that sentiment.
“The energy that they have, the new perspectives, new eyes on life that they bring, for me — especially when I was teaching more full-time — I learn as much from them as they learn from me,” he says.
Each of their award-winning poems dealt with death. Read both below.
How to Write an Elegy
Katharyn Howd Machan
Think gardens, round tomatoes growing
under hands in love with sun
where small toads linger beneath vines,
wide brown mouths that seem to smile
as they blink eyes of topaz jewels.
Remember the pop of sweet green peppers
twisting off at your first try.
Hear music, the old piano’s notes
rising from pages just inscribed
with songs and symphonies for a world
that listens, asks again to listen
to what curved fingers bring to keys,
black and white notes’ resonance
echoing long before they die.
Welcome evening fairy tales,
the Lord’s Prayer firm on reverent tongue.
Praise good laughter on long walks
for autumn’s mushrooms, summer’s grapes.
And hold again the simple paintbrush,
how you learned to shape a window
wider than a door’s goodbye.
Putting Together the Patio Swing
Eric Machan Howd
I don’t complain about the time it will take
to construct or how the box won’t fit
into the back of my car, how our hands
will need to hold it in place as we drive
up the hill to the home we have made
together after our children have moved out.
You chose this to be the reality
of your cash gift from the college,
for years of giving to the mission.
You picked it out because of its comfort
and shade, especially because it matched
the browns and tans of our facade.
This is your time and your celebration
and I know how hard you work
to remain seen in this world.
This recognition I willingly piece together
for you. The directions are clear. The tools
are small but as I work through the afternoon
I think about death, how someday
this furniture will be removed
to make way for something new.
I am silent as I tighten joints and balance
cross bars by myself. You stay near, clearing
winter from pots of earth. We don’t talk
about the pain of our aging bodies anymore.
When this swing is done, we will sit with wine
and quietly regard what still needs repair.
FULL INTERVIEW: Kathryn and Eric on Ithaca’s Morning News
