{"id":13481,"date":"2020-01-22T10:19:30","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T15:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/?p=13481"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:57:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:57:43","slug":"orions-belt-at-the-end-of-the-drive-accents-publishing-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/22\/orions-belt-at-the-end-of-the-drive-accents-publishing-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Orion’s Belt at the End of the Drive (Accents Publishing, 2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poet Pat Williams Owen answers a few questions about\u00a0Orion’s Belt at the End of the Drive<\/em> (Accents Publishing, 2019)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you still like your book? Why or why not?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I still like Orion\u2019s Belt at the End of the Drive<\/em>. I\u2019m proud of the poems and the period of my life it portrays. It\u2019s honest and heart-felt and represents several years of conscientious work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is the highest praise you\u2019ve received for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The highest praise I\u2019ve received from it was from my granddaughter who said she loves it, that it made her laugh and cry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What didn\u2019t make it in the book?<\/strong><\/p>\n

What didn\u2019t make it into the book were poems of lesser quality and those that didn\u2019t fit thematically.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there a poem from the book you\u2019d like to share with the readers of the Accents blog?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to share \u201cAfter My Untimely Death\u201d as a sample of a list poem that any writer can model.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After My Untimely Death<\/p>\n

Sometimes as I leave the house
\nI foresee people coming in and finding
\nremains of my life spread out like the ruins
\nof Pompeii. For sure on the floor
\nmy Birkenstocks, well-worn and embedded
\nwith my DNA, journals, books and magazines
\nstacked by my chair, yesterday\u2019s running shoes
\nbeneath the table, shoe strings dangling
\ntoothbrush standing at attention, maybe the towel
\nstill damp, a coffee cup with the final dregs,
\ntoday\u2019s New York Times spread out,
\nhalf read.<\/p>\n

Did I leave a light still burning,
\nawaiting my return? The chairs
\naround the table askew,
\na life in process, my fuzzy lap
\nblanket still on the footstool,
\nhousing my sloughed -off cells
\nhiding out in the folds of the yarn,
\nfingerprints on the sliding door
\nbelong to this particular life.<\/p>\n

Thoughts and dreams religiously recorded,
\nblack ink in journal after journal,
\nstacks of them. Shelves of books
\nunderlined and notated, my sweat
\nsmudged on each page. Light streams
\nin through the blinds as usual.<\/p>\n

Funny, all the years of viewing Orion\u2019s belt,
\nI thought my place on earth
\nwas permanent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How did you arrive at the title?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The title is taken from one of the poems in the book. In my poetry I try to address the intersection between the mundane and the transcendent. This poem is a metaphor for that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have a favorite Accents Publishing book (other than yours) and if so, which one?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My favorite Accents book other than mine is Katerina\u2019s The Porcupine of Mind.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are you working on now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m working on new poems, observations of life as it passes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Share a poem, or at least a sentence from your new writing.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last Wash for the Old Car<\/p>\n

To honor our 30 years of caretaking
\nI take my place in line with all the others
\nseeking purification,<\/p>\n

that one moment of perfection
\nwhen the grey face of the car emerges
\nshiny dripping wet through the soapy steam.<\/p>\n

Blue-shirted, brown-skinned workers
\nwhite towels wrapped round their heads
\nembrace it with rags<\/p>\n

scrubbing until all surfaces shine.
\nI climb into the leather seat one last time,
\nfresh lemon scent surrounds me.<\/p>\n

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

Poet Pat Williams Owen answers a few questions about\u00a0Orion’s Belt at the End of the Drive (Accents Publishing, 2019)   Do you still like your book? Why or why not? I still like Orion\u2019s Belt at the End of the Drive. I\u2019m proud of the poems and the period of my life it portrays. It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13481"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13484,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13481\/revisions\/13484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.accents-publishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}