My Private Wobegon
stories from home
Ordinary Poets By Carol Allis Arnold
Is there poetry for ordinary people
You know
Waitresses and nurses
People who clean floors and fix roads
And string cable and make sandwiches
And sing good-night songs
And go off to work every day
To pay for groceries and bicycles
Just ordinary people
Who hear the rhythm and music
Of ordinary life every day
Who don't have time
To ponder navels
Dissect complex phrases
Or analyze a line to death
People who think in poetry every day
But don't have time to write it down
And not much time to read
Catching lines on the fly
That kind of poetry
Carol Allis Arnold
Carol Allis Arnold has been writing poetry since
her father gave her a manual Underwood typewriter when she was seven
(i.e., a long time).
She writes for a living as a senior information writer
in Public Affairs for Hennepin County (Minneapolis), where she pares
down governmentalese into words ordinary people can understand.
She has two grown sons and a granddaughter, and lives with her husband,
two cats and assorted wildlife in Lake Elmo, Minnesota.
She wants to help bring back the loving link that used to exist between everyday people and poetrybefore it became too academic to recite by heart in the moonlight.
Previous Stories
- Christmas Noir (7/03/03)
- Matthews Avenue, Bronx, N.Y., September '78 (7/03/03)
- Ectoplasm at the Waffle House (5/20/03)
- Perfect Knowledge (5/20/03)
- The King is Alive and Well at the Local Sub Shop (4/16/03)
- Pears (4/16/03)
- A Cataclysmic Economic Downturn (3/15/03)
- Small Town Full of Big Stories (3/15/03)
- Coffebreak (3/15/03)
- The Recipe for Gravity (2/1/03)
- Appalachian Breeze (2/1/03)
- Cassiopeia (12/20/02)
- The Girl Who Learned to Levitate By First Learning to Breathe (12/20/02)
- Slow Death in the Waiting Room (11/1/02)
- Sneakers on a Wire (11/1/02)
- Casserole Ladies (9/15/02)
- Pain Redux (9/15/02)
- Drinks All Around (7/1/02)
- Wasteland Golf (5/22/02)
- Bob Perryman (5/22/02)
- Something Better (5/1/02)
- mn/twelve (4/1/02)
- Planting Wisteria (4/1/02)
- Pancake Surprise (4/1/02)
- On Turning 50, in Texas (3/1/02)
- Girl Scout Gets Stuck (3/1/02)
- Bullroarer (3/1/02)
- Stella Maris (2/15/02)
- The Cooking Circle (2/15/01)
- A Glance Back (2/1/02)
- The Long Goodbye (2/1/02)
- Now It Looks Respectable (12/15/01)
- Ordinary Poets (12/15/01)
- Fisherman's Son (11/1/01)
- The Dreamer (11/1/01)
- What Happened During the Ice Storm (10/6/01)
- Her Most Perfect Day Ever (9/15/01)
- I Have the Serpent Brought (8/30/01)
Singer and songwriter Andra Suchy talks about singing duets with Garrison, and her latest album, Little Heart.
Old Sweet Songs: A Prairie Home Companion 1974-1976
Lovingly selected from the earliest archives of A Prairie Home Companion, this heirloom collection represents the music from earliest years of the now legendary show: 1974–1976. With songs and tunes from jazz pianist Butch Thompson, mandolin maestro Peter Ostroushko, Dakota Dave Hull and the first house band, The Powdermilk Biscuit Band (Adam Granger, Bob Douglas and Mary DuShane).



