A Poem from Jeff Hardin

This poet isn't well known,  but he should be.

He won a big poetry prize last June, and I heard him read and loved his work and bought his book, which is titled    Restoring the Narrative.

Here is the first poem in the book:



Indiscriminate

I'm full of words but indiscriminate
so that I'll reach for almost any reach
of sound stretched out to touch this shapely world,
the single, nailed-down consonants -  straw, crow -
the sturdy pairs - barn door, hard rain, cornstalk -
to feel the heart stopped stunned to be alive,
stilled with hearing itself hearing the stillness,
the song of being filled with more and more.

And then the dance of many syllables
-sequoia, susurration, chincherinchee -
requiring of the voice a lightened rush,
a reverence for being pulled along
the voweled dips and runs, the dipthongs in
their dialectic
                      singing in accord.