CENTRE STAGE
Friends,
Centre, the small Kentucky college I attended, has been on my mind since I left it tearfully 56 years ago. Here are most of my poems about Centre as evidence.
Many of them are found in my book, The Comedy of Desire, but many of them were written afterwards.
It is, of course, my Centre. Each of us had our own. I am grateful for my mine. One of the two or three really shaping and informing experiences of my life began when my parents drove me down to Pennsylvania Station in NY City and put me on a train. I was sixteen. Two days later, I arrived in Danville. The trunk with all of my clothes never arrived. I still hope that it will make its way to Danville and be forwarded to me so I could see what I might have worn that first semester other than the clothes I wore on the train.
Nils
Centre Poems
Once I Went With a Girl Too Beautiful
ANDERS, IN THE BEGINNING
Anders on Life, First Considerations
This is tongue which I can push out
and forehead which I can wrinkle.
This is foot which I can push and here
is another one which works the same
way. These are arms. I can wave one,
the other, both, and arms have hands
with clutchers I can open, close. And
these are eyes and these are ears through
which the world comes to me, the sightings
and the rumbles of the big ones, and I
am everything except the world.
Anders in his Bouncy Chair
Anders in his bouncy chair reaching out
towards the bright toys swinging before him,
a little milk drool around his wide, pink
mouth. Those hands are not quite his yet. He
follows their movements intently. Well, yes,
they are beginning to do what he asks.
Feet are farther off. They face their bottoms
towards each other as if they were palms,
as if they wanted to applaud. Sometimes
they do, clapping together – Well, yes, World
is playing the great Being Symphony
and this is Anders’ first concert. Feet must
do their stuff, there is so much joy. Only
the old ones can wait for the right moment.
nilspeterson-poetlaureate 