Thom Ward

Poetry Reading

Tuesday, April 8, 2008
4 p.m., Willard Smith Library
Vaughan Literature Building


Thom Ward is the author of three books of poetry, Small Boat with Oars of Different Size (2000), Various Orbits (2004), and The Matter of the Casket (2007), as well as several chapbooks. He is senior editor for BOA Editions, Ltd., a prestigious publisher of American poetry and poetry in translation. For his poetry, he has received a fellowship from the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts and several grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2000 and 2001, he served as Chairman of the Literature Panel of the New York State Council on the Arts. Ward has taught creative writing workshops throughout the United States. He lives in Penfield, NY.

Thom Ward

GATES

            So is this the gate? said the man to what he assumed to be an angel who stood before a barrier not known to earth. It resembled a thick yet translucent column of wax.

            There are many gates, said the angel.

            I mean the gate, the one I worked to achieve in my life, the one that proves I did more help than hurt.

            There are many gates, said the angel. How easily an adoring crowd becomes a vindictive mob, how quickly a beam of light twists into shadow.

            I don’t understand, said the man.

            Your task is to discover what shape you are, said the angel. Then you will know where to find and how to pass through the gates.

            But I’m already dead, cried the man. I have no shape.

            Death has a host of shapes to be discovered, said the angel. Others have.

            This is all so confusing, said the man. What about pearly, and that eye of the needle and camel thing? We were told those are the clues.

            Do not panic. Time is no longer an issue, said the angel. And remember, there are many gates.