Not Meaning

The public radio show State of the ReUnion will be at our museum this Friday, Aug. 17, to interview me and others as part of a community story about Tulsa and surrounding areas. Since this show is not in our local NPR station line-up, I had not listened to it, but on the show’s website, you can hear all of its shows, plus see photos from the interviews.

 I wonder what I will say . . .

 I wonder where my poetry will be . . .

 I wonder what the other people they interview will say . . .

 I wonder where their poetry will be . . .

 I wonder where this museum is going and where I am going, too.

 Ken and I, both 51, asked ourselves the other day, What are we going to be when we grow up?

 So, I must remember Archibald MacLeish’s ending to “Ars Poetica”: “A poem should not mean / But be.”

 A life should not mean, but be.

 Ah . . . as if that were so easy. Bring it on, State of the ReUnion. I may not have meaning for you, but I will be here.

 –Shaun Perkins