“There are just a tremendous number of considerations if you’re going to be writing for young people…It makes you, by the way, a better poet. It makes you a better writer of anything because you become more aware of who is on the other end of those words. You’re sending them out— who is going to get them and what are they going to do with them?”
Speaking with David L. Harrison is a lesson in curlicue hopscotch—that way life has of conveying us along with playful jerks to loop us here then there and finally back again to the home we’ve been building all along. To Missouri, then, our playground during this latest rendition of The Laureate Project.
Missouri
By David L. Harrison
They asked a child,
“Why do you like Missouri?”
The child answered,
“I live here.
My friends live here.
I love Missouri.
It’s my home.”
It was a good answer.
They asked a student,
“Why do you like Missouri?”
The student answered,
“In school I learned,
the first people canoed Missouri waters,
cupped their hands at its springs,
drew bows in deer-high grass,
lived well off the land.”
The teacher said,
“Explorers came, wagons followed,
packed with bibles, fiddles, cooking pots.
Folks built cabins, churches, schools,
outposts, the seeds of towns.”
The farmer, voice soft as tilled soil,
said, “Missouri is dogwood trees,
front porches, barns, lakes.
It’s rows of corn whispering in river-rich earth,
cows in rolling pastures,
frogs at night singing to the moon.”
The business person said,
“Missouri is the heartbeat of many nations,
the confluence of cultures,
sharing visions, growing together.”
The writer said, “It is original thinkers –
Truman, Carver, Benton, Twain.
It is serious fishermen, rabid fans,
the Show Me State, Missouri . . .”
They asked an older person,
“Why do you like Missouri?”
The older person answered,
“I live here.
My friends live here.
I love Missouri.
It’s my home.”
It was a very good answer.
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You can find more information about this audio happening and a catalogue of all past installments on my personal website, here.
Featured Music:
“Clocks” | Isola James | Courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
“Cherry Blossom Waltz” | Trevor Kowalski | Courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
“Jungle Air” | Leimoti | Courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Haha. Love the story at the end about how they named the school after him and he was enjoying the chant! 😝