Gallagher, Tess 1990
I have had to write this down
in my absence and yours. These
things happen. Thinking
of a voice added
I imagine a sympathy outside us
that protects the message
from what can’t help,
being said.
– Tess Gallagher, “Love Poem to Be Read to an Illiterate Friend”
Read this interview with Tess Gallagher from Poets&Writers:
An Interview With Tess Gallagher
At the time of this interview, Tess Gallagher had just published Amplitude: New and Selected Poems, which gathered poems from her first three collections, with Graywolf Press. Her most recent book, The Man From Kinvara: Selected Stories, also was published by Graywolf in September 2009. Entire Trees-Douglas Firs, Alders, hemlocks-have washed up onshore.
The sleep of this night deepens
because I have walked coatless from the house
carrying the white envelope.
All night it will say one name
in its little tin house by the roadside.
– Tess Gallagher, “Under Stars”
Watch Tess Gallagher read her poetry at the Pennsylvania Scranton Public Library in October, 1980:
Friends of the Scranton Public Library Poery Series:Tess Gallagher Part One
This poetry reading is part of the Lackawanna Valley Digital Archives: http://content.lackawannadigitalarchives.org/cdm/ref/collection/fospl/id/0
