September 18, 1997

Jane Kenyon reads poem "Woodthrush"

Euan Kerr - Reporter, Jane Kenyon - Reader

LISTEN:Jane Kenyon reads poem "Woodthrush"
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Jane Kenyon was an essayist and poet who published several collections of work and contributed to the New Yorker and Atlantic magazines. Kenyon wrote about many things including her own battle with depression. MPR's Steven Smith talked with Kenyon in 1994 for his documentary "A Suffering Mind". During that interview, she read poem "Woodthrush."

Transcripts

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SPEAKER: High on nardo and June light, I wake at 4:00, waiting greedily for the first note of the wood thrush. Easeful air presses through the screen with a wild complex song of the bird. And I am overcome by ordinary contentment.

What hurt me so terribly all my life until this moment? How I love the small, swiftly beating heart of the bird singing in the great maples. Its bright, unequivocal eye.

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