Chris Mason: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]

 

 

 

 

 

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Pocket Dial

 

Cell phone pocket dials daughter

            sleeping with boyfriend, pre-dawn.

Crickets, truck banging around, cell phone

            doesn’t dial cranky

exuberant Mrs. Deemer, or the

            bus driver

from Special Olympics.   My Dad is gone

            but still on the phone.

My sister found U. S. Savings Bonds

            grandparents sent us,

the note says, “We are proud of the

            young man you have become.”

Hard to dial up the sound of their voices,

            even in dreams

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Chris Mason’s most recent books and chapbooks include Something Something Morning (Blabbermouth, 2020), Some of the Methods of Performing Poetry Employed in and Around Baltimore from the Late 60’s to the Early Teens by Poets in Their Late Teens to Early 60’s (Primary Writing, 2019), and ­Hum Who Hiccup (Narrow House, 2011).   He is a member of 3 bands:  The Tinklers, Coocoo Rockin Time, and Old Songs.  The Old Songs group translates archaic Greek poetry and puts it to music.  He lives in Baltimore with his wife, Ann.

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Comments

[Eileen]

Love this poem. Pocket dialing can be unexpected surprise.

[Dr. Earle Hitchner]

"My Dad is gone / but still on the phone": I have a phone machine cassette recording of my mother leaving a long message for me. It is by no means a "butt dial," but a concerted reaching out not long after my dad died. She was feeling lonely and in distress. I called back not to assure her with my voice but to assure her by only listening, which is what she wanted most of all. I had no way of retaining that exchange except through the sharp prod of memory. If dementia is in the cards for me in the future, it will have one helluva fight with that most tenderly stubborn of memories. Some forms of expressed dolor deserve quiet preserving.

Thanks for posting this poem, Terence. And thanks to Chris Mason for composing it.

[Joan Retallack]

So grateful for this Chris Mason poem! And for The Tinklers at Folkal Point! (I just uncorrected "Thinklers for Tinklers -- not because it doesn't pertain.) Warm best, Joan R

[clarinda harriss]

Wonderful poem. REsonates with me deeply. I still have on my phone a message I texted Steve as he lay on what I soon learned was his death gurney. I mean I knew I couldn't speak or phone him, so I texted him to let him know I was there. Made perfect sense to me at the time. Thanks, Chris, for writing the poem. Also, thanks, Terry--you may not believe this, but I really didn't quite realize the extent of Chris' music career.

[Maureen Owen]

A wonderful poem of connection with folks we love both living and gone.

[Terence Winch]

I'm glad you liked it. Chris is an old friend & one of my favorite poets.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Earle, for sharing that.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks for the comment, Joan.
The Thinklers--I love that name. May have to start another band.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks, Clarinda. Chris is full of surprises.

[lally]

chris mason has been one of my favorite poets since I first read him in the 1970s, and for me he never disappoints. Thank you for sharing this example of his unique genius, terence...

[Terence Winch]

You're welcome, mo chara. And I share your take on Chris.

[Diane Ward]

The always fabulous Chris Mason -- thank you again. Love and the Tinklers!

[Chris Mason]

Eileen, Earle, Joan, Maureen, Michael, Clarinda, Terence, Diane,thank you for your kind words! It's really an honor to be on this site where so many great poets have appeared.

[Don Berger]

Love the supra-specificity of this heart song, of those who the phone does and doesn't reach, who all live well here in this cosmos Chris makes, the father especially. The lines about Mrs. Deemer and the bus driver beautifully echo Niedecker's historic mention of Ed van Ness, though of course Chris has his own ways of showing us. What a poet he is "and has become"!

[Bernard Welt]

Chris Mason covers so much time and space. This poem reminds me of Ron Padgett's here recently: lots of use of space and breaks to well up feelings. Because it's 2021, I like to think that "We are proud of the/ young man you have become" was addressed to Chris' sister, and that Chris is now a little girl.
I'm really so grateful for Something Something Morning; it's an inspiration right now.

PS I have examined this photo carefully and am unable to find a pick anywhere in it. So much for the Pick of the Week, Best American Poetry.

[Terence Winch]

Thanks you for the comment, Bernard.
(It's finger-picking of the week.)

[Christopher J Mason]

Thank you Bernard, especially for the 2021 interpretation!

[Grace Cavalieri]

It's so wonderful to see Chris again. His hair still red. " We are proud of the young man Chris has become." For sure.

[Christopher Mason]

Great to hear from you, Grace! Congratulations on being named poet laureate of MD!