Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World Poems Kathryn Cowles MILKWEED EDITIONS © 2020, Text by Kathryn Cowles All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415. (800)520-6455 milkweed.org Published 2020 by Milkweed Editions Printed in the United States of America Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker Cover art by Kathryn Cowles 20 21 22 23 24 5 4 3 2 1 First Edition Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Alan B. Slifka Foundation and its president, Riva Ariella Ritvo-Slifka; the Ballard Spahr Foundation; Copper Nickel; the Jerome Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the National Poetry Series; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Also, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit milkweed.org. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Cowles, Kathryn, author. Title: Maps and transcripts of the ordinary world : poems / Kathryn Cowles. Description: Minneapolis : Milkweed Editions, 2020. | Summary: “Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World is a collection of poems about memory, place, and distance between reality and its transcriptions”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019041953 (print) | LCCN 2019041954 (ebook) | ISBN 9781571315021 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781571319791 (ebook) Subjects: LCGFT: Poetry. Classification: LCC PS3603.O8894 M37 2020 (print) | LCC PS3603.O8894 (ebook) | DDC 811/.6--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041953 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019041954 Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World was printed on acid-free 100% postconsumer-waste paper by Sheridan. [ For Sue ] CONTENTS Origin Story Island Map [water boat water] Hymn [all is well] A completely different alphabet Map [Two-dimensional circles] Postcard [Dear Brenda] Map [the way to the ladder] Transcript of birds The map keeps things put This donkey path Tide [the shadow maps] Lesson List Recipe [Goat cheese] Three hours at the blue table on the terrace in the shade of the rock wall Recipe [A set of instructions] [the still tree holds its wind] Sea change Transcript of birds, continued The day before the day before we have to leave Unmoor Plain I am on a plane Paper with tape Farm plot Interview Lay of the land [silo shade] Poem for the putting in of the new carpet [take your] [can’t you see darling] Ohio Shower water [a picture holds] Port Boat tour [wave not wave] Fieldguide Fieldguide marginalia Three poems called “The basil” Keeping track [a whole page] Proof Photograph of a friend taken after he has disappeared I am wearing a pinkish shirt Hymn [A song] Three hours in a rocking chair outside the blue-roofed bunkhouse in the wind A record of water you can’t see Metaphor: Description, uses thereof, side effects, interactions, etc. Map legend Postcard [A picture] Directions [seems fairly clear] Directions [Start here] [can’t catch] Acknowledgments The waters change all the while and stay the same only on the map. —JOHN BERGER, To the Wedding Maps and Transcripts of the Ordinary World ORIGIN STORY I stepped out of the blue paper of map water onto an island in Greece corrugated ground world was all around me little blue skirt and I wanted it down in paper sun rose and I wrote sun rose and then I wrote that I wrote it, scratch never in my life wrapped in paper have I ever so much wanted it down Island HYMN with 8 birds on a wire or rather on 3 wires … 4 birds on 3 wires, one bird on one … 5 of ’em now on 2; on 3; 7 on 4 —EZRA POUND, THE PISAN CANTOS 1 all is well, I sang, little learning how to do the harmony parts, Saturday church choir, all is well the blue sparrow babies have hatched and we have kept the cats away thus far and one day everyone decides to bale their hay every single field down all at once everyone all at once my friend is sick sick and far away and I hear will die and I can’t get my head to think it through all is well, I sang, all is well tho hard to you 2 so I wrote another friend a goat on a spit for you, Brenda we took a photo, I said, transcribed, put it down, list, list, sent a postcard is it getting hot in here 3 I am cycling in the mountains here is what I see my arms stretched out in my shadow three horses facing away the cows have got out, one white excuse me while I take this hill 4 don’t you call coward on me I put the knife through the fish’s skull once caught, all alone, into its hot, hot brain, again, again to be sure it’s just here lies / the Idaho kid the only time /he ever did he transcribed bird bird bird bird in Pisa counted them for comfort because everyone needs a latch comfort, comfort knife caught hold in a cliff and if I die, I sang, and if I die 5 the spit is picking up, Brenda I have a bug in my eye I can ride a hill down w/ no breaks now my one eye is streaming from the bug the spit is turning fast, Brenda a knife to the brain is quicker than a whack, whack, more humane I cannot get it in my head I see a blue bird, a bale, a white cow every single field down happy day, I sang, all is well every single thing down, picking up A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ALPHABET Transcript. A printed version of a recorded version of a sound. A written version of an audio version of a person talking. A mountain taken down. A printed version of a mountain, printing pressed. A copy. A copy of a copy. The letters pressed into paper resemble the tree’s branches. From the Chinese character. A tree. From which issues a bird sound. A printed version of the bird sound, representing the sound a mama bird makes as it feeds its baby birds. A black bird with orange parts. A chicken and
