Grace Paley: Suddenly There’s Poughkeepsie

Mid-Hudson Bridge as Seen from Vassar Hospital - Poughkeepsie
(http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/b6528/cd92f/)
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Grace Paley released the poem shortly before her death.

Suddenly there's Poughkeepsie / except for its spelling / an ordinary town - great phrase - there is also anonther one in this poem - Lorldly Hudson - she was embracing all, mockery and pantheist awe, in this poem where poetry is larger than life.

what a hard time

the Hudson River has had

trying to get to the sea

it seemed easy enough to

rise out of Tear of

the Cloud and tumble

and run in little skips

and jumps   draining

a swamp here and

there   acquiring

streams and other smaller

rivers with similar

longings for the wide

imagined water

suddenly

there’s Poughkeepsie

except for its spelling

an ordinary town but

the great heaving

ocean sixty miles away is

determined to reach

that town every day

and twice a day in fact

drowning the Hudson River

in salt and mud

it is the moon’s tidal

power over all the waters

of this earth at war with

gravity     the Hudson

perseveres    moving down

down    dignified

slower    look it has

become our Lordly Hudson

hardly flowing

and we are

now in a poem by the poet

Paul Goodman  be quiet heart

home home

(The New Yorker, December 24, 2007)

(Grace Paley)

(New York, New York)