TAKE HEART: A Conversation in Poetry

3 mins read

Edited and Introduced by Wesley McNair, Maine Poet Laureate

Who would have guessed that today’s poet, Thomas Moore of Brooksville, would run into Tom Brady at a poetry reading — during the Patriots’ first home game, no less?

Chick Magnets
by Thomas Moore

It’s the Patriots’ home opener
and I’m at a poetry opening in Maine.
The Pats are playing the Cincinnati Bengals,
yet Tom Brady is here at the poetry reading!
“Tom,” I say, “why aren’t you in Foxborough?”

“Oh,” he says, “I’ve always liked poetry
and I’m making seventy-two mil’
so I can do what I want—
Coach Belichick isn’t too happy, though.”

The poets read about Cranberry Island,
mice in bread boxes, dragon-flies,
Morocco, eating oysters in Grand Central Station,
summer cottages, and, well, you know,
the kind of stuff poets write about:
heartbreak, and a lot of asters by the side of the road.

“This Savory and James is good stuff,” says Tom
after the reading. “Smoother than Bud Light,
and being here is a lot easier than throwing passes”
—his left knee twitches and lifts slightly—
“or getting trashed by the Bengals’ defense.
Plus, these poetry readings are real chick magnets—
you and I are the only guys here!”

 

Thomas R. Moore
Thomas R. Moore

Thomas R. Moore lives in Brooksville. His collection The Bolt-Cutters won the poetry prize in the Maine Literary Awards competion in 2011. Two of his poems have been featured on The Writer’s Almanac. Two others were Pushcart Prize nominees, and one received a Pushcart Prize Special Mention.

Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Poem copyright © 2012 Thomas R. Moore. Reprinted from Chet Sawing, Fort Hemlock Press, 2012, by permission of Thomas R. Moore.

Questions about submitting to Take Heart may be directed to Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Special Consultant to the Maine Poet Laureate, at mainepoetlaureate@gmail.com or 207-228-8263. Take Heart: Poems from Maine, an anthology collecting the first two years of this column, is now available from Down East Books.

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