Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World
Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World
Poems
Kathryn Cowles
MILKWEED EDITIONS
© 2020, Text by Kathryn Cowles
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415. (800)520-6455
milkweed.org
Published 2020 by Milkweed Editions
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker
Cover art by Kathryn Cowles
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First Edition
Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Alan B. Slifka Foundation and its president, Riva Ariella Ritvo-Slifka; the Ballard Spahr Foundation; Copper Nickel; the Jerome Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the National Poetry Series; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Also, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit milkweed.org.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Cowles, Kathryn, author.
Title: Maps and transcripts of the ordinary world : poems / Kathryn Cowles.
Description: Minneapolis : Milkweed Editions, 2020. | Summary: “Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World is a collection of poems about memory, place, and distance between reality and its transcriptions”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019041953 (print) | LCCN 2019041954 (ebook) | ISBN 9781571315021 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781571319791 (ebook)
Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry.
Classification: LCC PS3603.O8894 M37 2020 (print) | LCC PS3603.O8894 (ebook) | DDC 811/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041953
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041954
Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Sheridan.
[ For Sue ]
CONTENTS
Origin Story
Island
Map [water boat water]
Hymn [all is well]
A completely different alphabet
Map [Two-dimensional circles]
Postcard [Dear Brenda]
Map [the way to the ladder]
Transcript of birds
The map keeps things put
This donkey path
Tide
[the shadow maps]
Lesson
List
Recipe [Goat cheese]
Three hours at the blue table on the terrace in the shade of the rock wall
Recipe [A set of instructions]
[the still tree holds its wind]
Sea change
Transcript of birds, continued
The day before the day before we have to leave
Unmoor
Plain
I am on a plane
Paper with tape
Farm plot
Interview
Lay of the land
[silo shade]
Poem for the putting in of the new carpet
[take your]
[can’t you see darling]
Ohio
Shower water
[a picture holds]
Port
Boat tour
[wave not wave]
Fieldguide
Fieldguide marginalia
Three poems called “The basil”
Keeping track
[a whole page]
Proof
Photograph of a friend taken after he has disappeared
I am wearing a pinkish shirt
Hymn [A song]
Three hours in a rocking chair outside the blue-roofed bunkhouse in the wind
A record of water you can’t see
Metaphor: Description, uses thereof, side effects, interactions, etc.
Map legend
Postcard [A picture]
Directions [seems fairly clear]
Directions [Start here]
[can’t catch]
Acknowledgments
The waters change all the while and stay the same only on the map.
—JOHN BERGER, To the Wedding
Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World
ORIGIN STORY
I stepped out of the blue paper
of map water
onto an island in Greece
corrugated ground
world was all around me little blue skirt
and I wanted it down
in paper
sun rose and I wrote
sun rose
and then I wrote that I wrote it,
scratch
never in my life
wrapped in paper
have I ever so much
wanted it down
Island
HYMN
with 8 birds on a wire
or rather on 3 wires …
4 birds on 3 wires, one bird on one …
5 of ’em now on 2;
on 3; 7 on 4
—EZRA POUND, THE PISAN CANTOS
1
all is well, I sang, little
learning how to do the harmony parts,
Saturday church choir, all is well
the blue sparrow babies have hatched
and we have kept the cats
away thus far
and one day everyone decides
to bale their hay
every single field down
all at once everyone
all at once
my friend is sick
sick and far away and I hear
will die and I
can’t get my head
to think it through
all is well, I sang, all is well
tho hard to you
2
so I wrote another friend
a goat on a spit for you, Brenda
we took a photo, I said, transcribed,
put it down, list, list,
sent a postcard
is it getting hot in here
3
I am cycling in the mountains
here is what I see
my arms stretched out in my shadow
three horses facing away
the cows have got out, one white
excuse me while I take this hill
4
don’t you call coward on me
I put the knife through the fish’s skull
once caught, all alone,
into its hot, hot brain, again, again
to be sure it’s just
here lies / the Idaho kid
the only time /he ever did
he transcribed bird bird bird bird in Pisa
counted them for comfort
because everyone needs a latch
comfort, comfort
knife caught hold
in a cliff
and if I die, I sang, and if I die
5
the spit is picking up, Brenda
I have a bug in my eye
I can ride a hill down w/ no breaks now
my one eye is streaming from the bug
the spit is turning fast, Brenda
a knife to the brain is quicker
than a whack, whack, more humane
I cannot get it in my head
I see a blue bird, a bale,
a white cow
every single field down
happy day, I sang, all is well
every single thing down, picking up
A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ALPHABET
Transcript. A printed version of a recorded version of a sound. A written version of an audio version of a person talking. A mountain taken down. A printed version of a mountain, printing pressed. A copy. A copy of a copy. The letters pressed into paper resemble the tree’s branches. From the Chinese character. A tree. From which issues a bird sound. A printed version of the bird sound, representing the sound a mama bird makes as it feeds its baby birds. A black bird with orange parts. A chicken and
