Carol Stevens Kner ’58
Alumnae Poet
Following her graduation from Smith in 1958, Carol Kner served for many years as managing editor and staff writer at PRINT Magazine. She has studied with Richard Howard, Marie Ponsot, Molly Peacock, and Richard Wilbur. Her poems have appeared in Western Humanities Review, The Paris Review, North American Review, Southwest Review, The Dark Horse and other journals. Her chapbook, Exposure, was published by Toadlily Press. Her first collection, “Falling out of Step,” a portrait of marriage before and after the onset of Parkinson’s disease, is looking for a publisher.
Select Poems
Eight p.m. eastern finds the Marshallin
and her Octavian in langorous dis-
array live at the Met,
while sky cam
lays before us, seven central, in all
its deftly groomed detail (the curving track
from first to third as graceful as a farth-
ingale) Progressive Field where Cleveland hosts
the Yankees in midsummer play.
They kiss—
the lovers—banter and delay, a throng
collecting in the hall: the Baron Ochs
with his jeweled box, rival petitioners
to fawn and plead, orphans, hairdresser, cook,
a tenor with a serenade
and at
the field, a hot-dog special and the tense
prospect of A-Rod’s six-hundredth home run
attract a record crowd, who watch Cleveland
score first. But in the third A-Rod’s sac fly
chalks up a transient tie
while PBS
presents the princess benching oafish Ochs
to designate Octavian pinch runner
with the silver rose. It seems a kind
of sacrifice, as chancy as a lead-
off walk.
Now in the sixth the captain hits
to center and Brett Gardner scores. The Yankees
lead 2-1,
Octavian dazzles Sophie,
knocks the baron out of play while earnest
as a third-base coach, the chaperone
sits by to keep her charge from stealing home.
Two outs dispirit and the fans want more.
New York breaks loose, hits seven in the seventh
and delayed somewhat by one more tenor
serenade, God bless, waltz on to join
the blow-out at the inn where Baron Ochs
bedeviled by Octavian’s pitching staff
strikes out and blusters off. The princess cedes
the field to youth; Octavian gets the win.
The Indians allowed twelve walks and put
position players on the mound. A-Rod’s
six hundredth waits still in the wings. Yeah, yeah
recaps the Yankees’ manager (ESPN),
Tonight we saw a few strange things.
Published in Atlanta Review, Fall/Winter 2013