Description
Book SynopsisJon Andersen's debut book of poems, Stomp and Sing, illuminates the concerns and aspirations of the new working-class generation. Andersen's image-studded lyrics about work, love, family and class struggle create a vivid narrative that traces the concerns and aspirations of young people facing the challenges of daily life in a turbulent century. These are clear, direct poems that take us from mountaintops to local cafes, from lumberyards to town sidewalks, and range in theme from the impact of racism to the consolation of nature.
Postcard from Chimney Pond
Climbed the talus around the pond last night-so many pebbles
around a puddle from the views of Baxter Peak, but down here
chunks of granite as big as the small house I grew up in, all
jumbled, jutting out of cold, clear water and piled up towards
the stars. Silent lightning split the sky far north. Scrambled
as far up the rock throat as I safely could and then some.
Slept beneath the cliffs. Had a dream of you so real that
for a long time after waking up, it felt good to have seen you again.
Trade Review""Jon Andersen's poems sing of a life lived, devoured, explored, and awake. Who writes like this anymore?"" --
Luis J. Rodríguez, author of Always Running|""...his poems focus on the predicaments of the young working class, echoing with humble but persistent optimism."" --
Library Journal
|"Stomp and Sing is a deeply affirming book of poems at a time when the banalization of every action and the disappearance of our dignities threaten everyone by way of the forces of war and public lies. Jon Andersen recovers for us the deathless sense of earthly and familial relationships, development, work-magic, class-insistence and natural struggle. You wil recognize profoundly what the Evil Empire has wanted you to renounce by way of forgetting, and for that we have Jon Andersen to thank."
—Jack HirshmanTable of ContentsI. Fierce to GoThe Mulberry Tree
The Street Named After Spencer
Spencer's Scrapbook
Civilian Life: 1976
Hi-Fi
Green World
The Lumberyard Needs a Real Nigger
Planting
The Foreman Calls in Sick
Looking at a Photo of Our Grandfather, Seeing You
From Spencer to Lisa
Lisa's Reply
The Rustic Café
II. The TrailsPostcard from Chimney Pond
Cathedral Trail
Trail Crew, Baxter Park
A Brief Note from Spencer
Dream
Saddle Trail to Tableland
To An Old Friend, from Good Earth Farm
July, Good Earth Farm
"Children Set Homeless Man on Fire"
October, Good Earth Farm
Postcard from New York City: May 1994
As I Went Walking
White Mountain Poem
III. The Real WorldYou Must
Encounter
True Story
F.Y.I.
Hey, Baby
Love in Eillimantic
Learn, My Boy
My Mother Paints Again
The Daughter I Never Had
The Real World
Two Mottos
Soldier
Spencer Goes to School
Spring, Catskill Mountains
Pit Bull
The Deal
Soon
