Published Poem - Vehicle - Dick Allen

I came across this poem somewhere a long time ago. I think it was even before I started reading The Writer's Almanac. It struck me then as something quietly spectacular, the play of the word vehicle, the dictionary definitions, the comparisons, and all of it leading me to that last line. I've read only one other Dick Allen poem. Anyone know his work?

Let us know in the comments what you think of the poem and maybe if it makes you feel like writing about someone you've loved.


Vehicle
Dick Allen


Something for transport. A device
pushed or pulled or driven,
launched, perhaps. Paddled,
rowed across a river, flown
as out of JFK. Something that holds together
while being used: a train
racing a car across Kansas,
a bicycle, a motorboat, even
the Voyager Spaceship. Also,
the medium through which a thing
finds its way home: a novel,
the tenor of a metaphor,
a play, a role, a piece of music
used to display
whatever's shown off in it. . . . The oil
for mixing paint pigments.
The substance of no therapeutic value
conveying an active medicine: a poet
looking from a casement window,
the priest or rabbi holding a dying hand.

All teachers are welcome at the Seven Valleys Writing Project where teachers teach teachers using writing to learn.