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In this interview, we talk with a longtime educator, Joseph Cronin, about his poetry: how he got started, what draws him to the form, and how his writing process works. Cronin shares what inspires his poems, what he hopes readers take from them, and how family and close readers play a role in his creative life. It’s a conversation about writing outside the classroom and the personal side of a lifelong writer.
Cronin Interview.mp4
Wondrous (poem)
I endeavor the beauty of a wondrous fall afternoon
which lunges out of the caravan and summersaults at my lap
bearing leaves that die softly and fall like feathers
on the bottom of the Kanawha forest floor.
I endeavor the babbling brooks, with sideways sycamores
spreading their roots to touch their toes
and undressing their hollow bottoms
in the tinkling water.
I endeavor the waterfalls that cascade down
with the charge of trumpets, with creeklets and brooks
giggling through the hills as they chorus in.
I endeavor the milky throat whistles of warblers,
the high-pitched piercing screech
of the pileated peckers carouseled by
the cave-voiced calls of crows.
I witness Benny’s left foot which hangs aloof,
pointing as he gazes with a frozen stare
at a fat black squirrel squeezing and husking its last nut.
I endeavor all of this in silence, thankful for
blades of grass that endeavor green, rocks that endeavor to bathe and bake
in the sun, and the peace and serenity that mid-autumn presents.
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