She Knew Him, When

A few years ago, the Matron met a poet named Greg Watson through a mutual friend.

Greg is the Matronly Prototype and Reminder that one never knows where talent hides. Take that grocery bagger? Could be the next classical pianist in training. The 20-something with a day job as a preschool teacher? Singer-songer writer aka Billy Joel's Piano Man, at night. (and wow that video now looks pretty chee-z even if the song STILL gives her chills)

Then there's Greg, who works as a security guard at the Mother Ship of the Great Unwashed Minnesota Masses -- The Target Center. So there's Greg, playing Shift Supervisor to thousands at concerts and tractor-pulling events.

And when he's done? He writes poetry that's so good, Garrison Keillor picks this poem to be on Writer's Almanac:

Now

I told you once when we were young that
we would someday meet again.
Now, the years flown past, the letters
unwritten, I am not so certain.

It is autumn. There are toothaches hidden
in this wind, there are those determined
to bring forth winter at any cost.
I am resigned to dark blonde shadows

at stoplights, lost in the roadmaps of leaves
which point in every direction at once.
But I am wearing the shirt you stiched
two separate lifetimes ago. It is old

and falling to ash, yet every button blooms
the flowers of your design. I think of this
and I am happy, to have kissed
your mouth with the force of language,

to have spoken your name at all.


Goosebumps! Chills! She is that taken with this poet! The best part? ALL of his work is that good! It continues to amaze her, how much talent there is in the world, unrewarded, how much art we aren't seeing.

Now, the Matron isn't much of a pitcher. In fact, she cannot even find the time to pimp her own darn blog. (feel free to do that for her whispers the pathetic attention seeking child stored in her belly) But she thinks that there's nothing lovelier and more personal than giving poetry as a gift--a wildly inexpensive way to hand over the world, isn't it?

The book is The Distance Between Two Hands. The genius is Greg Watson. The vehicle? You can find the book on Amazon and at marchstreetpress.