What Light: This Week’s Poem: Todd Boss
"What Light" presents a new poem by a Minnesota poet every week. The work is chosen by a jury of writers, publishers, and editors, and sponsored by Magers and Quinn Booksellers. Look for the anthology of What Light poems coming in February!
The Mind Will Wander
—as water will seep;
as mice will yonder
creep the clover deep
and still nose home;
as a wren will dither
daily in the dome and
remember the nest’s
address; as honeybees
comb September for
pollen—so the mind
will wander between
the lines (of music or
news or conversation),
will spend attention on
wonder’s fine wines,
will even tend toward
understanding, and,
swollen with booty or
duty or beauty, survive
to wend a way back
to the studious hive
and the subject at hand.
Poetics
I wrote this poem as an apologia, to open a book-length collection of poems I’m working on. It apologizes for the way the collection itself wanders in and out of its topics. I’m obsessed lately with the concept of apology—more specifically, the demands apologies place on us as human beings.
And I can’t help apologizing for this poem: that bit about “booty and duty and beauty” … doesn’t that get a bit cute? And can I really get away with using the word “yonder” anywhere, much less in an opening stanza? Oh well. I was having some fun!
Biography
Todd Boss is the Director of External Affairs at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. His MFA is from the University of Alaska–Anchorage. His work appears in Poetry, TriQuarterly, The Sun, and other journals. From time to time, his mind will wander.
