It's a Small, Small World...

Remember ' You've Got Mail' with Meg Ryan as a small book store owner competing with the big chain book store that certainly couldn't deliver the same charm and personal customer service? Well these little book stores are a dying breed although one still exists on Main Street in the small town of Viroqua. It's called Brambles Bookstore. It's cozy and inviting and does more than just selling books since it serves as a book club meeting place in addition to having guest authors... 

Thursday night was one such occasion. Milwaukee's first Poet Laureate has made the Coulee Region his second home. Why? He's a fisherman who built a seasonal home near Mt. Zion. As it has gotten too cold to fish it was time to close up this second abode and since he was en route to the Twin Cities he graciously offered a book reading/signing at Brambles to a full house. When the group was thanked for coming out on such a cold winter's night, someone jokingly called out that the store had 'heat.' They might not have been kidding as there are many alternative lifestyles in Viroqua and I bet not all include electric heat.

Anyhow the resident poet was none other than John Koethe.

 Below you'll find some of his illustrious accomplishments.   Maybe you have read some of his work... 

A philosopher by training this poet would be the last to say that his writing is philosophical nor intentionally political. He writes for himself/ so he says, not for an audience albeit he does have a piece called 'For an Audience.'  


For me selections read from rotc Kills spoke the loudest of a time when young college students received degrees graduating and entering the military as FNG(excuse the terminology- Fucking New Guy) with Second Lieutenant status and making very grownup decisions still wet behind the ears. We were at war in Viet Nam. Kids were being trained on our campuses.

Most of the work read was maudlin, whether it's Sally's Hair (link of author reading.)/ the lyrics of his poem of his Bean House,Coulee home:

"Diane christened it the Bean House,
Since everything in it came straight from an 
L.L. Bean Home catalog. It looks out upon two
Meadows separated by a stand of trees, and at night,
When the heat begins to dissipate and the stars
Become visible in the uncontaminated sky,
I like to sit here on the deck, listening to the music
Wafting from the inside through the sliding patio doors,
Listening to the music in my head. It's what I do:
The days go by, the days remain the same, dwindling
Down to a precious few as I try to write my name
In the book of passing days, the book of water. Some
Days I go fishing, usually unsuccessfully, casting
Gently across a small stream that flows along beneath
Some overhanging trees or through a field of cows.
Call it late bucolic: this morning I awoke to rain
And a late spring chill, with water dripping from the
Eaves, the apple trees, the pergola down the hill.
No fishing today, as I await the summation
Of my interrupted eclogue, waiting on the rain
And rhythms of the world for the music to resume,
As indeed it does: all things end eventually,
No matter how permanent they seem, no matter how
Desperately you want them to remain. And now the sun
Comes out once more, and life becomes sweet again,
Sweet and familiar, on the verge of summer."

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In between the readings there was discussion and bio info as he referred to his undergrad training at Princeton and Ph.D at Harvard. The latter in '68 about the same time as a cousin - in-law of Natureman. Surely the 2 guys would know each other being in a program that maybe had 5 students. And  of course he remembered Ron, the cousin, and didn't know what became of him since they haven't touched base since the late 60's. Well ain't it a small world? Now that's poetry to the ear...

" Tell Ron to contact me through UW- Milwaukee, " said John.

It's a Small World click on link...

In 2011, Koethe received a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and 
Letters and his Ninety-fifth Street (Harper Perennial, 2009) won the 2010 Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets. He has published numerous books of poetry, including North Point North: New and Selected Poems (Harper Perennial, 2003), which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; The Constructor (Harper Perennial, 1999); Falling Water (Harper Perennial, 1997), which won the Kingsley Tufts Award; Domes (Columbia University Press, 1974), which won the Frank O'Hara Award for Poetry; and Blue Vents (Audit/Poetry, 1968).
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* By all means patronize Susan's Bramble Bookstore.                     bramblebooksellers@yahoo.com