Authors: Lorine Niedecker
Revised to the present text for
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 24.
1965-1967
These years saw the start of her friendship with Gail Roub, a Black Hawk Islander and history teacher at Fort Atkinson High School.
In mid-1965 she prepared the typescript for
T&G.
She also began summer vacation car trips with Al Millen that would take them to the Black Hills in South Dakota in 1965, around Lake Superior in 1966, and to Copper Harbor, Mich., and Door County, Wis., in 1967. These travels provided impetus for major poems such as
“LAKE SUPERIOR”
and
“WINTERGREEN RIDGE.”
Autumn
Unpublished in book form.
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse.
9 (undated, possibly 1965): 1. The poem derives from the long version of the FPOP poem “Dear Paul,” lines 188 and 191 (see p. 400).
Last night the trash barrel Unpublished in book form.
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse
. 9 (undated, possibly 1965): 1.
The boy tossed the news Unpublished in book form.
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse
. 9 (undated, possibly 1965): 1.
Popcorn-can cover
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse
. 9 (undated, possibly 1965): 1; variant line 3: over the hole
Truth Unpublished in book form.
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse
. 9 (undated, possibly 1965): 1.
Lights, lifts
T&G, MLBW.
Lines 5 (May 1965): 32.
O late fall
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
CHURCHILL'S DEATH
T&G, MLBW.
Arts in Society
3.3 (Winter 1965): 429.
LN to CC, Feb. 11, 1965: “I did see Churchill's funeral, the Thames, St. Paul's, the solemn faces, Handel on the organ—I found it very moving. I didn't see the mechanical cranes along the Thames dip in salute as the body passed down, but the papers said they did. I hope it wasn't an order, an order from the top” (
BYHM
54).
The Badlands T&G, MLBW
[EA].
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 14.
LN was visiting the Badlands of South Dakota when she heard of Adlai Stevenson's death (July 28, 1965,
BYHM
68).
A student
T&G, MLBW.
An early version in
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse.
13 (undated, possibly 1965): n.p., is composed as two five-line stanzas:
A student
my head always down
of the grass as I mow
and my low
pillow
I missed the cranes
“These crayons fly
in a circle ahead”
said
a tall fellow
The same version appears in a June 20, 1967, letter to Gail Roub.
LN to LZ, Jan. 14, 1962: “Man here says ‘these crayons’ (cranes) ‘fly in a circle but ahead’” (
NCZ
298).
Bird singing
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
Origin
ser. 4, 16 (July 1981): 28-30, prints the three versions which LN sent to Gail Roub in 1965 after she had seen Gail's vivid acrylic painting. LN published the second version. Here are the other two plus her annotations:
Version I:
Prothonotary Warbler
Clerk of May Court
singing ringing
yellow green
St. Francis image
as perch—why judge—
a niche in the wall
and the man made green ring
in his painting—grass
the sweet bird flew in
and the friend took it
to testify: (Willa)
“they know how to live”
Version III:
Warbler
St. Francis' image
—no grimace—
looks down
past the nest in the niche
and the yellow green
sound
It is right
to delight
in this ringing
bird-light
from the emerald
ground
I—Fairly conscious. II is the one I'll probably keep as the one
sleeping under
the other, in large part subconscious. I might have laid an egg (I) tho—?—in any event the egg out of the bird. In II the bird out of the egg and the song before that and the color—
Cather (last two lines of I—you remember she said that in Avignon they know how to live. (That was 1902—wonder what that place is now?)—
Version III—This might be
it
—or is it only fooling around, a kind of Mother Goose warbler?
Version II in
Combustion 15/Island
6 (n.d.): 31, and in
“EIGHT POEMS,”
Monks Pond
1 (Spring 1968): 7.
Easter Greeting
Unpublished in book form.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 1, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
CITY TALK
Unpublished in book form.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 15, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
As praiseworthy
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 16;
“EIGHT POEMS,”
Monks Pond
1 (Spring 1968): 8; and
The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the 20th Century
, ed. Hayden Carruth (New York: Bantam, 1970).
They've lost their leaves
MLBW.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 17.
My mother saw the green tree toad
T&G, MLBW.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 19, and
The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the 20th Century
, ed. Hayden Carruth (New York: Bantam, 1970).
TRADITION
Unpublished in book form.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 29, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
Autumn Night
Unpublished in book form.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 31, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
The poem refers to Aeneas McAllister, who was LN's neighbor and close friend from 1953 to 1960. He was a pianist, composer, and amateur astronomer.
Sky
MLBW.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 33.
Nothing to speak of
MLBW
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 34.
Swedenborg MLBW.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 35.
I lost you to water, summer
MLBW.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 36.
Another poem addressed to Aeneas McAllister. See note for
“Autumn Night,”
above.
I married Unpublished in book form.
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 38, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
LN to CC (letter plus poem), July 20, 1967: “Just a few minutes ago rather spontaneous from a folk conversation and I suppose some of my own dark forebodings. We shd. be true to our subconscious? Sorry it is another
I
poem. My god, I must try to get away from that” (
BYHM
129).
You see here Unpublished in book form.
In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 56, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
Your erudition Unpublished in book form.
In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 53, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
Alone
MLBW.
In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 53.
Why can't I be happy Unpublished in book form.
In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 54, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
And what you liked Unpublished in book form.
In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 54, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
Cleaned all surfaces Unpublished in book form.
In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 54, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).
Young in Fall I said: the birds
MLBW
[EA].
In a numbered group of
“FOUR POEMS,”
Poetry
111.3 (Dec. 1967): 159, and
The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the 20th Century
, ed. Hayden Carruth (New York: Bantam, 1970).
NORTH CENTRAL
This collection was published by Fulcrum Press in 1968. LN thought of the work as a long poem. She told CC on Oct. 13, 1967, “I'm mailing you today another envelope of poems that I think of as Part II of a long poem, the first section of which will be out this fall or winter in
Arts in Society.
Third section coming up (since Door Co. trip)…” (
BYHM
131-32). The first section she refers to is
“LAKE SUPERIOR,”
the second is what came to be known as
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
and the third is
“WINTERGREEN RIDGE.”
Between the first two sections she added the short poem
“My Life by Water.”
LAKE SUPERIOR
NC, MLBW
[EA].
The poem arises in part from her 1966 summer car trip with Al Millen around Lake Superior. Her notes for the poem, now in the Roub Collection, number close to 300 pages. They include detailed research into the history and geology of the region. An Oct. 6, 1966, letter to Morgan Gibson refers to an early version of the poem called
“CIRCLE TOUR.”
However, the only surviving early version is “
TRAVELERS
/Lake Superior Region,” in
Arts in Society
4.3 (Fall/Winter 1967): 508-13:
TRAVELERS
Lake Superior Region
I
In every part of every living thing
is stuff that once was rock
that turned to soil
In blood the minerals
of the rock
II
Iron the common element of earth
in rocks and freighters
Sault Sainte Marie
the old day
pause
for
voyageurs
,
bosho (bon jour)
sung out
by garrison men
Now locks, big boats
coal-black and iron-ore-red
topped with what white castlework
The waters working together
internationally
Gulls playing both sides
III
Through all this granite land
the sign of the cross
Beauty: impurities in the rock
IV
Here we touch the polished
ruby of corundum
lapis lazuli
from changing limestone
glow-apricot red-brown
carnelian sard
from Uruguay
and silica-sand agate
from nearby shore
Greek-named, Exodus-antique
kicked up in America's
Northwest
you have been in my mind
between my toes,
agate
V
Let the English put sun
in the name Radisson
and make gooseberry jam
of Groseilliers
(GrosaYAY)
river, falls, a whole country
gooseberry
“a laborinth of pleasure”
this new world of the lakes—
Radisson
Long hair, long gun,
no fingernails—
pulled off by the Mohawks
when they bound him to the stake
for slow killing
Forty years ago now
toward Rainy Lake
ospreys dived for fish
and eagles swooped to snatch
from ospreys as they did
when Radisson
Knife Lake-rendezvoused
with Chippewa, Huron,
Ottawa, Sioux for furs
this lake (State 65) named
for his gift to them
the first steel knife
they'd seen
VI
The long canoes
“Birch Bark
and white Seder
for the ribs”
VII
Schoolcraft and party
left the Soo with canoes
US pennants, masts, sails,
chanting canoemen, barge,
soldiers
for Minnesota
Their South Shore journey
as if Life's—
The Chocolate River
The Laughing Fish
and The River of the Dead
Peaks of volcanic thrust,
hornblende in massed granite
Wave-cut Cambrian rock
painted by soluble mineral oxides
washed by the waves and the rains
A green running as from copper
Sea-roaring caverns—
Chippewa threw deermeat
to the savage maws
Voyageurs
crossed themselves
threw a twist of tobacco in
VIII
Of the wild pigeon
did not man
maimed by no
stone-fall
mash the cobalt
and carnelian
of that bird
IX
Into Minnesota
beside the great granite,
gneiss and the schists
to the redolent pondy lakes—
lilies, flag and Indian reed
“through which we successfully
passed”
X
Came now to joy,
the shining lake-study-
pronouncement:
the primary source
of the Mississippi River
Itasca
(from
Veritas caput)
XI
The smooth black stone
I picked up in true source park