Poetry Pairs, 5

"Some One" & UT Tower shooting, 1966

Hello, Poetry Friend

On August 1, 2016, I had the privilege of attending the installation of the memorial of the dead from the tower shooting at the University of Texas on August 1, 1966. At the time of the tragedy, my dad, Clif W Drummond, was student body president. He helped save as many people as he could from something that, at the time, no one imagined could ever happen again. So no one wanted to memorialize it.

Author Elizabeth Crook opens her novel Monday, Monday with the shooting, and she interviewed my dad for details on that day, including this wonderful question: “What color was the light?”

the student body president in 2016 on the left and my dad on the right

I interviewed Crook for my first book, The Joy of Poetry. She said that at some of her readings for that book, she opens with an old poem by Walter de la Mare (who I’ve written about at Poetry for Life before). Crooks makes a pairing that is truly haunting.

Some One

Some one came knocking
At my wee, small door;
Some one came knocking,
I'm sure—sure—sure;
I listened, I opened,
I looked to left and right,
But nought there was a-stirring
In the still dark night;
Only the busy beetle
Tap-tapping in the wall,
Only from the forest
The screech-owl's call,
Only the cricket whistling
While the dewdrops fall,
So I know not who came knocking,
At all, at all, at all.

–Walter de la Mare

There are tragedies we cannot wrap our minds around. But a poem — that we can handle. It gives us a safe place to dwell within a scary neighborhood without becoming retraumatized.

My dad has been gone for three years, but this event is part of his history, which makes it part of my history. I hold it gently, paired with this poem.

Poetry Journal

• Read De La Mare’s poem.

• Jot down what you notice, what you like, what you don’t, what questions you have, and at least one way in which the poem speaks to you.

• Read the poem aloud every day for a week. (Until I share the next poem, on Wednesday.) Is a pairing arising?

• Write your own poem about “Some One” and the new association is has for you. I wrote a ghost poem over at my website. If you like, email me what you write.

Happy poeming!

Megan