This is Poetry Moment on WPSU – a weekly program featuring the work of contemporary Pennsylvania poets. Your host is poet and author Marjorie Maddox, a 2023 Monson Arts Fellow, author of more than 20 books, and Professor Emerita of English and creative writing at the Lock Haven campus of Commonwealth University.
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Welcome to Poetry Moment.
Most of us think of “holding pattern” as an aircraft delay tactic. But how might we apply this term to our lives? According to spiritual coach Anné Klint, “You know you're in a holding pattern when you crave forward movement, but you feel you're at a standstill, or worse, moving backwards.” In today’s villanelle, “Holding Pattern,” Emily Grosholz examines memory, as well as what we are unable to articulate.
Emily Grosholz is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy and English Emeritus at Penn State and served as an advisory editor for The Hudson Review for four decades. She has published eight books of poetry, including The Stars of Earth: New and Selected Poems (2017), and Great Circles: The Transits of Mathematics and Poetry (2018). Her 2014 book of poetry, Childhood, which supports UNICEF, has been translated into Japanese, Italian, French, German, Bulgarian, Yoruba, and Arabic. She received the Fernando Gil International Prize for Philosophy of Science, for Starry Reckoning: Reference and Analysis in Mathematics and Cosmology(2014).
In today’s haunting villanelle, Emily Grosholz steers repetition to track the descent of memory, to circle a little longer the unspoken, and to delay, as long as possible, the inevitable landing. This poem speaks to many who journey life’s various and difficult routes, including separation, aging, loss, grief, and dementia. The poem also holds high a signpost to love.
Here’s “Holding Pattern” by Emily Grosholz
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We can’t remember half of what we know.
They hug each other and then turn away.
One thinks in silence, never let me go.
The sky above the airport glints with snow
That melts beneath the laws it must obey.
We can’t remember half of what we know.
His arms are strong and warm, his breath is slow;
She holds him close, not knowing what to say.
One thinks in silence, never let me go.
Time silts the rivers, ravaging the flow
Of wave on wavelet, and suspends the day.
We can’t remember half of what we know.
This holding is agreement to forego,
This flight another strategy to stay.
One thinks in silence, never let me go.
The silver trees spring back to life, although
Their roots are gilded by the leaves’ decay.
We can’t remember half of what we know,
One thinks in silence. Never let me go.
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“Holding Pattern” first appeared in PN Review 235 (May-June 2017) and was reprinted in The Stars of Earth: New and Selected Poems (San Jose, CA: World Galaxy Press, 2017).
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That was “Holding Pattern” by Emily Grosholz. Thanks for listening.
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Listen for Poetry Moment with Marjorie Maddox Mondays during Morning Edition and All Things Considered on WPSU. You can more episodes at wpsu.org/poetrymoment.
Our theme music is by Eric Ian Farmer.
