The Distance Between Two Hands
Greg Watson
On the Highway to Lake Mille Lacs
It is a long drive, your legs and shoulders
tense with the effort of stillness,
your hair flying like a red dress torn to ribbons,
your naked feet beautiful as lilies
against the tar-hot Naugahyde of the dash.
I do not speak, confining my thoughts
to the blue concave of sky,
the stone-white of highway lines,
the earthen blood of animals
tire-flattened, strewn along the roadside
like clots of ground the earth has refused.
The smell of water rises like a premonition,
subtle as dream, pervasive as sex,
that good, godless argument
we wish never to end. It is
a long drive, and for these brief moments
I have been born at the right time.
isbn 1-59661-091-3
58 pages/$9
There is a rich, generous spirit behind every one of the poems of Greg Watson’s The Distance Between Two Hands. Grounded firmly in the physical world, these short, indelible lyrics—so compelling, so sharply etched in precise, evocative images—do what we ask of all good poetry. They make art of our common lives. The result is an engaging and thoroughly enjoyable volume, one that speaks with great clarity and a wisdom born out of everyday living. These are poems you will want to share, read aloud, and re-read.
—Robert Hedin, author of The Old Liberators
A rare kind of stillness seems to be the hallmark of a Greg Watson poem, which is all the more remarkable because the poems themselves are anything but static. The poems are about moments caught, pinned down, observed, but they open into such wide emotional and erotic terrain in which the literal, domestic world slides effortlessly into the figurative. We should be grateful that such poems exist, and that our paths can cross with theirs. Watson’s images are surprising and ring true; while the themes—love, loss, faith, desire, and the beguilement of the world—are familiar enough, these are not “familiar” poems. Once you have encountered these poems you will wonder how you ever managed without them.
—Jude Nutter, author of Pictures of the Afterlife and The Curator of Silence
Acknowledgments
“On the Highway to Lake Mille Lacs”—Potatoeaters Quarterly
“Morning Poem” and “Awaiting a Poetry Reading at Central Presbyterian”—freefall
“The Conspiracy of Names”—Poem
“Hands”—Whistling Shade
“Winter Comes in Springtime Too,” “Lines,” “Visitation,” and “Learning to Pray”—Poetry East
“It Was Those Days”—Newsletter Inago
“ Aftermath of a Lengthy Rainstorm”—Tiger’s Eye
“Happiness”—Red Hawk Review
“The Loft”—Sulphur River Literary Review
“Watching the Fall of Baghdad on TV from a Fifth Floor Psych Ward”—Poets Against War (online)
“Swiftly from the Day”—ten : by : six
“Even in spring,” “After sweeping,” “Autumn wind,” “Ssshhhhhh…,” “Black butterfly,” “The lines in your hand”—Lilliput Review
“Old love,” “Another winter,” and “Thirty-six winters”—Frogpond
“Black butterfly”—Point Judith Light
“Now” and “Sparrows in Winter”—Writers’ Journal
“Love, Love, Love”—Barbaric Yawp
“Moment” was selected by Alex Lemon for the second round of the mnartists.org contest “What Light: This Week’s Poem.”
“The Conspiracy of Names” was selected by Joyce Sutphen for the fifth round of the mnartists.org contest “What Light: This Week’s Poem.”
“Memo” was selected by Jude Nutter for the sixth round of the mnartists.org contest “What Light: This Week’s Poem.”
“Moment” and “Trains” were included in What Light: A poetry anthology from mnartists.org (2007 mnartists.org / Walker Art Center).
Cover photograph (also used on the section dividers) by Sandy Anderson.
Contents
One
On the Highway to Lake Mille Lacs 3
Beach Light 4
Moment 5
The Conspiracy of Names 6
Morning Poem 7
Lines 8
Aftermath of a Lengthy Rainstorm 9
Blues for a Country Girl 10
Distance 11
Hands 12
Two
Winter Comes in Springtime Too 15
It Was Those Days 16
Scar Tissue 17
Souvenir 18
The Reflection 19
Happiness 20
Loneliness and Its Rival 21
The Loft 22
Three
Trains 25
Crowds 26
Awaiting a Poetry Reading at Central Presbyterian 27
Saying Hello 28
Against Hope 29
On the Amtrak from Hattiesburg to New Orleans 30
Love, Love, Love 31
Memo 32
Visitation 33
Watching the Fall of Baghdad on TV from a Fifth Floor Psych Ward 34
The Genius of Sleep 35
Swiftly from the Day 36
For My Brother on His Forty-First Birthday 37
Four
Incommunicado 41
Correspondence of One 42
Five
Upon Your Leaving 50
Heavy Rain, Late August 51
Now 52
Parting Gestures 53
Wind Moving Through Tall Grass 55
Sparrows in Winter 56
Reading in the Dark 57
Learning to Pray 58