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The Monday Poem (old)
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Calling him back by Bob Hicok
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I first heard this poem when it was read by Maria Zuniga for the Poetry Out Loud competition for high school students. This is the competition video of her award winning performance,https://youtu.be/10y_ABST3o0
Mod
"After he hung up I went outside and sat
with one hand in the bower of the other
and thought if I turn my head to the left
it changes the song of the oriole
and if I give a job to one stomach other
forks are naked"
His questioning of his effect on the world and his effect on other people for good or ill is touchingly human. And then he pivots to:
"if tonight a steak
sizzles in his kitchen do the seven
other people staring at their phones
hear?"
I take that to be a sort of existential despair at other people's callousness. That image of people on their phones unaware of this steak that someone else might not have the job or the money to afford to buy, to afford to eat.
It's not a fancy poem in technique, but it feels so heartfelt and sincere. It really touched me! I had never heard of this poet before, but now, I'll seek out more from him.
Greg wrote: "I take that to be a sort of existential despair at other people's callousness. That image of people on their phones unaware of this steak that someone else might not have the job or the money to afford to buy, to afford to eat..."Interesting as I read this last stanza rather as the question of are the 7 people desparately waiting for that phone call giving them a job aware of that one person's good fortune (as epitomized by the celebratory steak).
The student's performance was what hooked me - she seemed to really express the difficulty of being a boss, having the power to hire and fire. I was amazed that a high school student could project that.
Mod
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Yes, your reading makes complete sense to me Leslie. So the people staring at their phones are the people with the empty forks that didn't get called for the job? That makes a lot of sense. I think you're probably right.
Mod
Definitely Joan! An impressive performance!
Leslie, I see that now too.I had been focused on the pain of the boss who cannot keep everyone on the payroll.
You know, I wasn't digging it until about the third stanza, then it began to matter so much. I listened to the student performance and she was great, but then I watched the author as well, and you really get the monotony and hesitancy with which so many of us progress through life, making decisions which, for us, are no big deal, but every now and then realizing the impact that those decisions have on the strangers around us.
Mod
Very well put Owen, exactly!
And it was toward the last stanzas when the poem turned that I was hooked in by it as well. Then I went back and re-read the earlier portion with a different eye. But it was the ending stanzas that first grabbed my attention.
I think I interpreted the poem like Greg when I read it but like Leslie when I watched the video.
The last two Monday poems have really opened my eyes to spoken word poetry. It really helps me understand a poem and is expanding my poetry experience. Thanks everyone.
The last two Monday poems have really opened my eyes to spoken word poetry. It really helps me understand a poem and is expanding my poetry experience. Thanks everyone.
Owen wrote: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd_Ga..."WOW, thank you for that link.
, Bob Hicok's reading brought a different side out for me. In the student's reading, the narrator seemed happy about rehiring and sad for the other employees.
In Hicok's I felt the narrator was more ambivalent and surprised by the effect his actions had on others, as if he had just realized his responsibilities as an employer.
Do you think that interpretation of a poem should be heavily influenced by the poet's interpretation and biography? (view spoiler)
Mod
Not sure but I definitely think it helps me to understand the writer's intention, which I sometimes find really useful in cases where a piece of writing is confusing.
That's great info in your spoiler Joan, thanks!
hello and I said hello came a pause
during which it would have been
confusing to say hello again so I said
how are you doing and guess what, he said
fine and wondered aloud how I was
and it turns out I’m OK. He
was on the couch watching cars
painted with ads for Budweiser follow cars
painted with ads for Tide around an oval
that’s a metaphor for life because
most of us run out of gas and settle
for getting drunk in the stands
and shouting at someone in a t-shirt
we want kraut on our dog. I said
he could have his job back and during
the pause that followed his whiskers
scrubbed the mouthpiece clean
and his breath passed in and out
in the tidal fashion popular
with mammals until he broke through
with the words how soon thank you
ohmyGod which crossed his lips and drove
through the wires on the backs of ions
as one long word as one hard prayer
of relief meant to be heard
by the sky. When he began to cry I tried
with the shape of my silence to say
I understood but each confession
of fear and poverty was more awkward
than what you learn in the shower.
After he hung up I went outside and sat
with one hand in the bower of the other
and thought if I turn my head to the left
it changes the song of the oriole
and if I give a job to one stomach other
forks are naked and if tonight a steak
sizzles in his kitchen do the seven
other people staring at their phones
hear?
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...