A Found Poem for The Fourth

A little something different as we approach the Fourth of July weekend. Most of you know I have never been a big jingoistic celebrator of the holiday, and that's still true. However, I was already planning to post this poem, and given that it holds such a piece of old America, this seems like the right day to do it. Just before the festivities begin.

Several years back, a friend of the family had cleaned out a piece of acquired property in Connecticut. In one area (I believe it was a barn) she found a treasure trove of old books that she ended up giving to me, including a very old printing of Uncle Tom's Cabin. But the best find was yet to come. As I started to flip through the books, I found letters. Old ones. Who the letters belonged to, even the friend had no idea. Judging from the writer's whispers of nuclear power and the book that the letter was found in (The Wayfarers, reviewed by none other than Eleanor Roosevelt), it's safe to assume that the letter I include below was written no earlier than 1945. Maybe just before the bombs dropped in Japan.






Out of the letters I have, this one remains my favorite. It's almost reassuring to read this and know that even The Greatest Generation focused on trivial things like cosmetics and novels to take their minds off of world events they had little control over. I always planned to try and turn the content of these letters into found poems, and I finally tried it during the National Poetry Writing Month challenge in April of 2008. Years later, this is the only successful one so far. I hope to do something with at least one more letter, but for now I'm happy with this and glad it was published in The Endicott Review a while back. I now reprint it in full here.


Found Poem
From the pages of The Wayfarers by Dan Wickenden
Dated 7/19/1945 United States Navy Stationary

Dear Do,
The scuttle butt has it that
you are in the market for a compact.
I've set aside a very nice silver one
a nice flowery design
4 inches in diameter
round
It’s a little more expensive than Kay’s,
but I couldn't get anything
in the same price range.

I got a mitt here—
it's pretty nice and
about time I got one.
Nothing new on Pre-Flight
or baseball.

The commanding Officer
gave us the word tonight
Congress may cut
the naval appropriations budget
2400 guys out of the program
I can't believe Congress would do
anything as silly as that—
especially with Russian relations as they are.

I pray to god that we never start
anything with those boys.
Not because they are so tough,
but because of this atomic stuff.

Maybe Dr. Pohl has had some chemists
or engineers in the office that have
mentioned atomic power to you—
if so you know what I mean.
I won’t bother you with the details,
mainly because I don't know them!

Let's hear from you as soon as possible
on the compact situation.
I personally think it's very nice.