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Free Verse: Alison Pelegrin

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 10, 2012 - William Carlos Williams famously said "No ideas but in things." It's things, usually small things, that tell us about the world and who we are. This month's poem celebrates them -- specifically things lost, forgotten or buried.

Alison Pelegrin

Ode to Things

Dumpsters of things,

shiny baubles of the earth,

things we collect

then discard or forget --

paperclips, state capitol

teaspoons, marbles,

baby food jars

with buttons inside.

Avalanche of artwork --

every doodle a keeper

at first, Sam's circus

tents more like wild

wild west volcanoes

spewing clowns. Bookmarks,

banana phones, spatulas,

shuttlecocks, goggles,

Pink Pearl erasers,

my dead father's clothes,

his dancing shoes,

and in a landfill

between here and Texas

cousin Amanda's

ballerina jewelry box

bereft of corsages,

of brass rings that rash

fat fingers green.

Endless inventory,

pharaoh's tomb

crowded with vessels,

the jackal god's

hieroglyphic rant

on the wall.

Stolen things, seashell

barrette I lifted

in Ft. Lauderdale,

bicycles, lawnmower

wheeled out of the garage

in winter, while the grass

slept. Nobody noticed,

which reminds me

of the time I ran away --

took Sock Monkey

around the block to mope

beneath a willow tree.

Alison Pelegrin is the author of three poetry collections, most recently "Hurricane Party" (The University of Akron Press, 2012). The recipient of fellowships from The Louisiana Division of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, her poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, River Styx and many other places. She teaches English at Southeastern Louisiana University and lives in Covington, La., with her family.

To learn more about River Styx, click here. Richard Newman, River Styx editor for 15 years, is the author of two full-length poetry collections, "Borrowed Towns" and "Domestic Fugues." He also co-directs the River Styx at Duff's reading series.