Transcript: Poems on Air, Episode 16 - Terrance Hayes

[Music intro]

LYNNE THOMPSON: Hello! My name is Lynne Thompson, Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles and I’m so happy to welcome listeners to this installment of Poems on Air, a podcast supported by the Los Angeles Public Library. Every week, I’ll present the work of poets I admire, poets who you should know, and poets who have made a substantial and inimitable contribution to the art and craft of poetry.

LYNNE THOMPSON: For many years, a writer’s conference has been held in the mountains of Idyllwild near Palm Springs, California and I attended the conference the year that National Book Award win-ner, Terrance Hayes, came to conduct a workshop. A professor at New York University, the recipient of MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, and the author of six collections of po-etry, Hayes is both a visual and literary artist. One of the most arresting aspects of Hayes’ work is his humility and sensitivity and empathy for others. His generosity toward his stu-dents, myself included, is legendary and makes him a favorite of many.

LYNNE THOMPSON: Today’s poem is "American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin" by Terrance Hayes.

American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin

Sometimes the father almost sees looking
At the son, how handsome he’d be if half
His own face was made of the woman he loved.
He almost sees in his boy’s face, an openness
Like a wound before it scars, who he was
Long before his name was lost, the trail
To his future on earth long before he arrived.
To be dead & alive at the same time.
A son finds his father handsome because
The son can almost see how he might
Become superb as the scar above a wound.
And because the son can see who he was
Long before he had a name, the trace of
His future on earth long before he arrived.

LYNNE THOMPSON: The Los Angeles Poet Laureate was created as a joint program between the City’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Los Angeles Public Library and this podcast will be available on the Library’s website. In the future, episodes will be available on iTunes, Google, and Spotify. Thanks for listening!

[Music outro]

  • Back to Poems on Air: Episode 16

    • DISCLAIMER: This is NOT a certified or verbatim transcript, but rather represents only the context of the class or meeting, subject to the inherent limitations of real-time captioning. The primary focus of real-time captioning is general communication access and as such this document is not suitable, acceptable, nor is it intended for use in any type of legal proceeding. Transcript provided by the author.

Top