Tuesday

Jan. 30, 2001

Let Evening Come

by Jane Kenyon

Broadcast date: TUESDAY, 30 January 2001

Poem: "Let Evening Come," by Jane Kenyon, from Let Evening Come (Graywolf Press).

Let Evening Come

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the crickets take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.
Let the wind die down. Let the shed
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don't
be afraid. God does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

It's the birthday of Michael Dorris, born in Louisville, Kentucky (1945). He's the author of A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (1987), The Cloud Chamber (1997), and The Broken Cord (1989), about Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. He struggled with depression, and committed suicide in 1997.

It's the birthday of poet and novelist Richard Brautigan, born in Tacoma, Washington (1935). He left home at 18, moved to San Francisco, and befriended Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg. Kurt Vonnegut heard about his work, and got him published nationally. His first novel was The Confederate General from Big Sur (1964); Trout Fishing in America came out in 1967. He committed suicide when he was 49.

On this day in 1933, the WXYZ radio audience in Detroit, Michigan, was the first to hear the words, "A fiery horse, with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty 'Hi-Yo Silver!', The Lone Ranger!!" By the end of the decade 400 radio stations carried the program, with its theme song, Rossini's "William Tell Overture."

It's the birthday of historian Barbara Tuchman, born in New York City (1912). Her grandfather had been U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Mexico under President Woodrow Wilson; an uncle served as the secretary of the treasury under President Franklin D. Roosevelt; and her father was a banker and an owner of the Nation magazine. She's the author of The Guns of August (1962), Stilwell and the American Experience in China(1970), and other books.

"The writer's object is—or should be—to hold the reader's attention. I want the reader to turn the page and keep on turning to the end. This is accomplished only when the narrative moves steadily ahead, not when it comes to a weary standstill, overloaded with every item uncovered in research."

It's the birthday of the 32nd President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, born in Hyde Park, New York (1882), the only child in a wealthy family. He was nameless for the first seven weeks of his life because his mother wanted to call him Warren, and his father wanted to call him Isaac. When he was five, his father took him to the White House where he met President Grover Cleveland. The President patted him on the head and said, "My little man, I am making a strange wish for you. It's that you may never be President of the United States." He was partially crippled by polio when he was 39, but with therapy was able to stand and walk very short distances, though he had to be lifted in and out automobiles.

"If you have spent two years in bed trying to wiggle your big toe, then anything else seems easy."

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

«

»

  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show