Alan May: 00:05

Welcome to The Beat. Today, we’ll hear the poet Jos Charles read part of her long poem “a Year.” This section is called “October.”

Jos Charles: 00:25

This is "October" from the poem "a Year"

October rose

up A coastline obstructing

itself I

lost something

in every room they

got in how

how

how

how your dreams

When was it

I knew my house to be

falling apart

when did I lift

an arm or bend

backward corbel like swung you your back

to mine When was it ever September tides pouring over

When whales like men moved about the earth

Walked home

from the pharmacy

looked in bushes backs

of birds heard a ring (every

ring is a dead ring) & were you alive

last it rained when two

sisters ahead la la

they said if we could

la no

femme flaneur my brain la

a living horse wooden

soldiers in it

Perpetual hair falls

to the floor Harpies make a nest there

No book whose margin isn't illumined

with carmine carbon gold

When you get back

they will say

we tore down a house & built a statue of a house

I see you

at night Our

brief

kind an

oak signifies

Goethe like becomes its arm

We peek then ate

We the fruit

Alan May: 02:56

You just heard Jos Charles read “October” from her book a Year & other poems. She was kind enough to record for us at her home in Long Beach, CA. Jos Charles is the author of three books: a Year & other poems, published in twenty twenty-two by Milkweed Editions; feeld, which was a Pulitzer-finalist and winner of the twenty seventeen National Poetry Series; and Safe Space, published by Ahsahta Press in twenty sixteen. She teaches as a part of Randolph College's low-residency MFA program, and she lives in Long Beach. You can find books by Jos Charles in our online catalog. Also look for links in the show notes. Please join us next time for The Beat.