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Hear Beth Houston
read “Running Into a Student at Baker Beach”
in RealAudio format.
Running Into a Student at Baker Beach
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Running into a student at Baker Beach,
I was struck that the nuance between naked and nude
Was not a point of craft I’d ever guessed I’d teach.
That dripping, singing mermaid, who’d more than dared to eat a peach,
More than prompted why, innocent and clothed, I should feel so lewd
Simply running into a student at Baker Beach.
That issues concerning what to say one cannot reach,
Without determining where to look without seeming rude,
Was not a point of craft I’d ever guessed I’d teach.
To look up, to look down —
more complicated than parts of speech
Was how reflecting sunglasses suddenly looked so crude,
Running into a student at Baker Beach.
Response to classic beauty out of context can neither sigh nor screech;
Conveying depths of pent-up fervor to which those sounds allude
Was not a point of craft I’d ever guessed I’d teach.
Something poured out through my sweat the way a whale might breach;
How I’d fathomed that epiphany that all great poems exude,
Running into a student at Baker Beach,
Was not a point of craft I’d ever guessed I’d teach.
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