“From Room to Room” poems by Jane Kenyon
I am a novel gal. I will occasionally dabble in short stories and non-fiction, but I rarely venture into poetry. Last month, I read Dani Shapiro’s book Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life. In it she quotes poet Jane Kenyon, and writes a little about Kenyon’s sadly short life. So, going by the transitive property of liking stuff, I liked Dani Shapiro’s book, and Dani Shapiro likes Jane Kenyon’s poetry, then there’s a good chance I will like Kenyon’s poetry. So I picked up a copy of Kenyon’s first collection, From Room to Room. And, voila, I liked it!
Kenyon’s collection sketches out a story of leaving one home and moving to another in New England. The poems are short, and deceptively easy to read. They invited me in for what felt like a short stay, but I lingered on each one rolling the words around in my head. Some are sad, some sweet, some funny. One of my favorites was this:
The Shirt
The shirt touches his neck
and smoothes over his back.
It slides down his sides.
It even goes down below his belt–down into his pants.
Lucky shirt.