Heather Derr-Smith, “The Pelican”

My father, whom I did not know at the time,
Was at Yelapa Bay, Mexico.
He had been missing since I was seven. One day,
He came around a bend and found a wounded pelican,
Caught on a fishing line, tangled and hooked.
Every time the bird thrust its head back,
The pouch tore,
The hook ripped a little bit more, an episiotomy
That birthed only fear.
It wasn’t the first time. Once, he’d led a deer
Just like the father in Arabian nights with the gazelle,
Who bought a third of a life for a stranger.
My father sat near through her labor
Until she gave birth.

The pelican would die. About this time I would have
Wondered where he was, if near.
My father, whom I was beginning to forget,
Crept low to the ground in a gesture of humility the bird recognized,
Beyond all believability, and calmed.
My father, who left when I was very young, cradled the pelican in his arms.
My father was a ticket agent for Braniff airlines
And always carried his sewing kit in his pocket.
He was prepared for anything but fatherhood.
But at the bend in the bay he mended the hurt bird.

The Bride Minaret is the second collection of poems by Heather Derr-Smith, and the University of Akron Press has provided a PDF sampler of more poems from the book. The Literary Bohemian has also published three new poems in its most recent issue.

In an interview with Barn Owl Review, Derr-Smith discussed why her poems often include such vividly detailed imagery:

“When I was a little girl, I just loved that scene in The Sound of Music when Julie Andrews is leading the children in singing about their favorite things. I’ve collected favorite things all my life, as a way of feeling attachment to a material world that has at times felt very unstable to me… When I got older, and I started to go to places where there was a lot of upheaval, a lot of turmoil, maybe poverty, maybe war, the scattered pieces of ordinary life became a very important way of understanding where I was, to get located, somewhat grounded in a strange, sometimes dangerous environment.”

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5 April 2009 | poetry |

Happy 59th Birthday, Helen Sweetstory!

Ms. Sweetstory is the author of the The Six Bunny-Wunnies series of books for children, which includes The Six Bunny-Wunnies Go to Long Beach, The Six Bunny-Wunnies Make Cookies, The Six Bunny-Wunnies Join an Encounter Group, The Six Bunny-Wunnies and Their Layover in Anderson, Indiana, and the notorious The Six Bunny-Wunnies Freak Out, which became the subject of controversy in 1972 when a California school board attempted to ban the book from the school library.

You can learn more about Helen Sweetstory in The Complete Peanuts: 1971 to 1972, which also covers the turbulent relationship between Patricia Reichardt and Charles Brown (who was still infatuated with a red-haired girl who had moved away some time previously), the resistance of young Patty to her school’s dress code, the “Thompson is in trouble!” adventure, and the construction of a six-story parking garage on the original site of the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm. And plenty more besides.

5 April 2009 | uncategorized |