{"id":2059,"date":"2012-04-20T15:40:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T19:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=2059"},"modified":"2013-12-18T21:24:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T01:24:07","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-june-20-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-june-20-1981\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: June 20, 1981"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"McNair-to-Hall-06-20-1981\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-06-20-1981\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-06-20-1981\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

June 20, 1981<\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

Not a new poem–just the old one
\nwith the revisions I mentioned typed in.<\/p>\n

If I am lucky, this is ready
\nto become one of the next batch.<\/p>\n

Am working on many other things,
\nbut progress is, as usual, slow. I
\nshould have a reasonable group of
\nthings by October, though.<\/p>\n

When is the Ploughshares<\/span> coming out?<\/p>\n

I await that<\/span> and the probable return
\nof my manuscript from Pittsburgh\u2026<\/p>\n

Something to look forward to, and something to dread.<\/p>\n

Best in your<\/span> work.<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

Wes<\/p>\n

When Paul Flew Away<\/p>\n

It was the same as always,
\nPaul opening the big, black lung
\nof it with that worried look
\nwhile the cats watched
\nfrom under the stove,
\nbut when he closed
\nhis eyes and began to sink
\ndown between the straps
\nof his bib-overalls,
\nit was like he died. Except
\nthe accordion was still breathing
\na waltz between his hands,
\nexcept he called back
\nto us every so often
\nfrom wherever he was, shit.
\nWhich meant everything
\nhe had ever known
\nin his life up to that
\nmoment, but this song.
\nNot some sock-drawer
\nmusic of getting a tune out
\nand then rummaging
\nfor the chord to match,
\nbut together, exactly like
\nhe was breathing the thing
\nhimself. No stomping
\neither, just Paul twisting
\nlike he was after some deep
\nitch, only right then
\nhe was starting to lift
\nout of his chair. Slowly
\nat first, like flypaper
\nin a small breeze, then
\nthe whole enormous weight
\nof him hanging over the sink. God,
\nhe was happy, and I
\nand the kids was laughing
\nand happy, when all
\nat once it come to me,
\nthis is it. Paul is leaving
\nthe old Barcolounger
\nstuck in second
\nposition, and the tv on top
\nof the tv that don\u2019t
\nwork, and all my hand-paintings
\nof strawberries as if he had never
\nsaid this would be Strawberry Farm.
\nHey! I said to him out in the yard
\nbecause he was already going
\nright over the roof
\nof the goat-shed, pumping
\nthat song. What about you
\nand me? And Paul
\njust got farther and smaller
\nuntil he looked like a kid
\nopening paper dolls over
\nand over, or like
\nhe was clapping slowly
\nat himself, and then
\nlike he was opening up the wings
\nof some wild, black bird
\nhe had made friends with
\njust before he disappeared
\ninto the sky above the clouds
\nover all of Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

-Wesley McNair<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

Editorial note about this letter:<\/em><\/span><\/strong> This draft of the poem and its follow up on 6\/18\/82<\/span><\/a><\/span> are both close to the published version, which appeared in McNair’s second collection, The Town of No<\/em>.<\/p>\n

McNair’s note about this poem:<\/em><\/strong><\/span> The comic “Paul” of this poem is my older brother Paul in disguise, who also plays accordion and at the time I wrote “When Paul Flew Away” had been taken into the hospital for a life-threatening kidney operation — the grim back story for this character’s “flying away.”<\/p>\n

Read When Paul Flew Away <\/strong><\/span><\/a>(published version)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Click image to view] June 20, 1981 Dear Don, Not a new poem–just the old one with the revisions I mentioned typed in. If I am lucky, this is ready to become one of the next batch. Am working on many other things, but progress is, as usual, slow. I should have a reasonable group […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35323,35504,42976,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2059"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11341,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2059\/revisions\/11341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}