{"id":489,"date":"2012-06-03T21:36:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-04T05:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=489"},"modified":"2012-06-03T21:46:18","modified_gmt":"2012-06-04T05:46:18","slug":"kary-wayson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/?p=489","title":{"rendered":"Kary Wayson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lives of Artists<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m a nuisance on my route, an imposition <\/strong><\/p>\n

in the alleyway, just past the house of
\nshared custody: glass clock in the window like a ticking
\nterrarium. I manage like a mother
\nwith a daughter who looks just like her father
\nand I am almost up to here<\/p>\n

where once, in an alcove
\nof myself, I lingered in a stand of birches. Here
\nmy mind gets shy
\nas if I\u2019d asked my daughter to say hello
\nto a stranger. I don\u2019t have a daughter. But crossing the street,
\nI jerk her little arm.<\/p>\n

There is a joy in talking through an open window with a friend<\/strong><\/p>\n

on the sidewalk below. My mother understood it, with her
\nunderwater tea parties on the bottom of the swimming pool.<\/p>\n

Map for me my walking route and I will walking go.<\/p>\n

It is new to be beautiful <\/strong><\/p>\n

and unseemly to say so. I manage
\nmany paintings of the same Catholic saints, each
\nfamily holy according to another —
\nand then we get to the Caravaggio.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s new to be beautiful
\nand boring. It\u2019s like counting to two
\nand turning around
\nand counting to two again.<\/p>\n

But I was good! I was good! I let <\/strong><\/p>\n

the offer lie there like I\u2019d rent
\nan empty room: the one electrical outlet,
\nthe sink in the corner, the pull-out, the sofa.<\/p>\n

I took how many tenants through.<\/p>\n

The only clothes I’m wearing now
\nis the dress on the bed beside me \u2013<\/p>\n

And I am to bed like the station to the train: <\/strong><\/p>\n

to the bed headed
\nby the street below it. I mean
\nI am the station. There is the train
\nlike a river
\nderanged by colors of cargo.<\/p>\n

I go to the river
\nto read red books
\nand reason —<\/p>\n

I sit with the sky. I go for a walk
\nto visit this direction:
\nreally there\u2019s no need to rhyme.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“The Lives of Artists” was previously published in Crazyhorse,<\/em> and the winner of the Linda Hull Memorial Prize, selected by James Tate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kary Wayson’s <\/a>poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, Poetry Northwest,<\/a> Alaska Quarterly Review, The Nation, The Journal, FIELD, Filter, The Best American Poetry 2007, <\/em>and the 2010 Pushcart Prize anthology. Kary was a 2003 Discovery\/The Nation award winner, and her chapbook, Dog & Me,<\/a><\/em> was published in 2004 by LitRag Press. Her first full collection, American Husband,<\/a> <\/em>won the Ohio State University Press\/ The Journal Award in 2009. Kary lives and works in Seattle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lives of Artists   I\u2019m a nuisance on my route, an imposition in the alleyway, just past the house of shared custody: glass clock in the window like a ticking terrarium. I manage like a mother with a daughter … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,8],"tags":[175,176],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}