The Sunday Poet: Linda Larson

Poet Linda Larson

Linda Larson has been a journalist, poet, writing teacher, and a writing student in the course of her career. One thing she likes about the role of a poet is that she gets to write about what she loves. And it is evident in her body of work that she has a deep love for her subjects and the craft of writing.

Linda Larson was born and educated in the Midwest, and spent many a childhood summer in Mississippi. She graduated with an M.A. from the Writing Seminars at John Hopkins University in 1970. While in Mississippi she worked as a feature writer for the Capitol Reporterr and The Jackson Advocate. She relocated to the Boston area and for five years she served as an editor and contributor to Spare Change News-- a homeless paper based in Cambridge. In 2007, she published her first book of poetry Washing the Stones ( Ibbetson Street Press)



Postage Due

As a child...walking in the heat,

the light ripples like antique window glass.

Heat waves don't bother children.

Up the lane and then up the hill,

I travel daily to the white frame

post office to check the mail.

Almost every day there is a letter

from Mother to take back to the house

and read in silent comfort.

***

There is still a satisfaction

in retrieving the mail.

A modest joy but a joy nonetheless.

Letters and postcards first, but

then brochures about travel cruises,

charitable requests, notices from museums,

alumni magazines telling me

which of my classmates have died

and that I am alive.

There is that thrill, that flutter,

that hoped-for sweetness

as long as there is mail.