From Dale Keiger I have learned simultaneously of Jacobsen‘s existence and her passing. He quotes a very nice poem called “The Wind in the Sunporch”; here’s the only other work of hers I’ve been able to find online (from the Baltimore section of Poetry in Motion):
from Of Pairs
The mockingbirds, that pair, arrive,
one, and the other; glossily perch,
respond, respond, branch to branch.
One stops, and flies. The other flies.
Arrives, dips, in a blur of wings,
lights, is joined. Sings. Sings.Actually, there are birds galore:
bowlegged blackbirds brassy as crows;
elegant ibises with inelegant cows;
hummingbirds’ stutter on air;
tilted over the sea, a man-of-war
in a long arc without a feather’s stir. […]
I’d say she deserves further investigation.
Jacobsen was a marvelous poet serving in the Congressional post which later became that of poet laureate. One of her splendid collections is The Shade Seller and she was also the author of a fine collection of short stories, A Walk with Raschid from Jackpine Press in Winston-Salem. Check her out. She’s one of the worthies.
New link.
Thanks! I’ve substituted that for the dead one in the post and replaced the others with archived versions. And here’s the full version of the excerpted poem; I have to say, the first two stanzas, quoted above, are the best.
Soon it will be possible to wake up threads that have been dormant for 20 years. This one was not quite 19, still I think it was my record.