Dear Readers,
I’ve been writing about connecting people for three posts. This is the final one.
Below is one of my poems about connection.
White Hearse
When the white hearse passed
a thousand mouths closed
at the chili cook-off.
Beer rippled to a standstill in plastic cups.
Spoons rested in peace
in bowls of ground beef and beans.
People rose in respect.
Baseball caps came off
in the town square.
One could hear a crow squawk
at the top of a live oak.
I stared out in wonder
at solemn faces of random strangers.
The steel of our automobile
did not separate us.
Joined, for a time
from where we came from
and where we are going, people stood
until the last car of the procession
passed by.
David Markwardt
I wrote “White Hearse” in 2014 after my Aunt Tiny’s funeral in Round Top, Texas. She was my father’s brother’s wife and the last close family member of my father’s generation to die. When I was growing up in the 1960s, Round Top was a German immigrant farming community. By 2014, it had lost much of its immigrant character, but the rural response to the funeral procession showed it maintained a traditional respect toward life and death.
I recall a bank manager from Espanola, New Mexico, picking “White Hearse” in a leadership program. She was Hispanic and could trace her ancestors back to the conquistadors. Espanola is a traditional northern New Mexico community, with long-standing customs. What drew her to the poem was the title, the opening stanza, and how the celebration was interrupted. The words, lines, and images that stood out for her were “the white hearse,” “a thousand mouths closed” and “chili cook-off.” It was a vivid scene, she said. She was also drawn to the images of partying and celebration—”beer rippled to a standstill in plastic cups” followed by “people rose in respect./ Baseball caps came off/in the town square.”
She said that in her community, people too often have feuds about trivial matters, sometimes lasting for years, even generations, but then set them aside and come together over tragedy. She connected with the poem across distance, time, and culture. She could relate to people putting aside petty differences to focus on what matters. People could be at odds with each other and then, poof, could set it aside for a funeral. Likewise, this is what a Poetry Table helps us to do.
Have a good week!
David
