Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CORNPICKER POEM, by ROBERT BLY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CORNPICKER POEM, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sheds left out in the darkness
Last Line: Is waiting, its its empty gas cans around it
Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers


Sheds left out in the darkness.
Abandoned granaries, cats merging into the night.
There are hubcaps cooling in the dark yard.
The stiff-haired son has slouched in
And gone to bed.
A low wind sweeps over the moony land.

Overshoes stiffen in the entry.
The calendar grows rigid on the wall.
He dreams, and his body grows limber.
He is fighting a many-armed woman;
He is a struggler, he will not yield.
He fights her in the crotch of a willow tree.
He wakes up with jaws set.
And a victory.

Ill
It is dawn. Cornpicking today.
He leans over, hurtling
His old Pontiac down the road.
Somewhere the sullen chilled machine
Is waiting, its empty gas cans around it.





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