![\"\"](\"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Heidi-Hart-317x550.jpg\")
READ LOCAL First\u00a0represents Utah\u2019s\u00a0most comprehensive collection of\u00a0celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This month we bring you Heidi Hart. Hart teaches German and English at Weber State University. She is a Pushcart Prize-winning poet with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in German Studies from Duke University.<\/p>\n
Hart’s scholarly work combines politically inflected music, literature, and film, with a growing focus on environmental media. Her books include a literary memoir, Grace Notes<\/em>, and poetry collection, Edge by Edge<\/em>. More recently, she published a book about\u00a0Hanns Eisler’s activist art songs and another on music in climate-crisis narrative.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Three Short Poems\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n & “Hearing Voices”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n For Lizzie McKay<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the book of wisdom for young ladies<\/p>\n my great-grandmother tucked<\/p>\n her photograph of a black bear.<\/p>\n She packed a doctorate from Barnard and a gun.<\/p>\n The bear had come just close enough to smell her<\/p>\n and she hadn\u2019t shot.<\/p>\n Black-and-white pine trunks, a tent,<\/p>\n that lifted snout<\/p>\n between the page that showed a Gibson-girl bride<\/p>\n and the one that quoted Proverbs<\/p>\n on virtuous womanhood.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n On the highway blood is running<\/p>\n from a mass too large to be a dog<\/p>\n or deer.\u00a0 I swerve to pass it.<\/p>\n Last July a black bear wandered out of<\/p>\n our pine woods and almost<\/p>\n reached the hospital.\u00a0This one hit<\/p>\n the human world at rush hour.<\/p>\n I am shaking at the wheel. \u00a0And I know<\/p>\n that mountain girl who shook, too,<\/p>\n pistol in her pocket,<\/p>\n Kodak shutter clicking, anything to find an image<\/p>\n to stand in her book, to stand for her<\/p>\n when it closed in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Salt Lick<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I bathe in salt bought in the market square<\/p>\n in N\u00fcrnberg, city of jackboots and peppermint tea,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n of red-brick memory, my own drawn up out of my skin,<\/p>\n my body a wet tear\/tear in the membrane, screen<\/p>\n <\/p>\n in the cathedral showing Coventry in flames,<\/p>\n mirrors within mirrors, broken marriage-<\/p>\n <\/p>\n spell, all my left-hand fingers burned, salt in the wound.<\/p>\n They say it purifies.\u00a0 I haven\u2019t wept like this since<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was ten, in Frankfurt, postwar cranes agleam<\/p>\n still, from the window of the hospital.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My mother had just lost the baby.\u00a0I believed it was<\/p>\n my fault.\u00a0 Now, in a rough towel, I lie down next to the cat,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n who licks the salt from me.\u00a0Essential element.<\/p>\n My own almost-lost life.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Precarity Song<\/strong><\/p>\n and Counter-song<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em>Now we wear our houses, scarf<\/p>\n and piercing, perfect bag, this charm<\/p>\n or chain, passport, tattoo,<\/p>\n grit from the last city on our shoes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Does this mean that we\u2019ve outgrown that house <\/em><\/p>\n of cards, two-car garage and throttled wish,<\/em><\/p>\n trimmed parking strip, the tuned-out sound<\/em><\/p>\n of electricity that tuned us all to the same pitch?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n We schlep our loss and light as if<\/p>\n we could forget the privilege<\/p>\n we carry, too.\u00a0 We\u2019re out of work.<\/p>\n We freelance. Dream a little plot of dirt.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n So have we \u201cevolved\u201d or are these comfort-words<\/em><\/p>\n like sanded wooden birds to stroke and keep<\/em><\/p>\n in hotel room, short-term apartment, circles<\/em><\/p>\n of affection stretched across the sea?<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Downstairs in the corner store,<\/p>\n the Turkish mother cries over<\/p>\n her daughter\u2019s head wound. She<\/p>\n is here. The girl is miles away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Best to clasp what hands we can. Protest<\/em><\/p>\n what will not release our eyes.<\/em><\/p>\n Forget building a comfortable nest.<\/em><\/p>\n Make the world like home, but never quite.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hearing Voices<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Don\u2019t sing <\/em>my son says on the North Sea shore<\/p>\n wedged in granite as wind stops my throat<\/p>\n whitecaps and sand raging in<\/p>\n bunker and \u201cGerman teeth\u201d still here to keep<\/p>\n U-boats and ships and tanks at bay<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t sing in this wind anyway but he\u2019s afraid<\/p>\n of what might come for me<\/p>\n again this time<\/p>\n Nykkjen-of-the-water who hears farmgirl Heiemo\u2019s voice<\/p>\n her brothers sleeping too late<\/p>\n he sculls her out in open water<\/p>\n no this is no Lorelei who drives men rockward to their deaths<\/p>\n how to tell my son my life has come for me instead<\/p>\n no spell but something answered<\/p>\n and a kind of rest<\/p>\n somehow we\u2019re both still here<\/p>\n Heiemo sleeps in Nykkjen\u2019s arms<\/p>\n the sea slaps wood no song no song no song<\/em><\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n I\u2019m reading Anne Carson\u2019s \u201cSwimming in Circles in Copenhagen\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m reading postcards by Tanny LeClerq barely breathing in circles<\/p>\n in Copenhagen ballerina in the iron lung<\/p>\n Between grief and nothing <\/em>writes Carson<\/p>\n Waiting for a letter <\/em>bubbles LeClerq\u2019s little mermaid voiceless<\/p>\n Legs alas. <\/em>writes Carson Legs die.<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n like a filet of sole trying to balance on its tail <\/em>LeClerq writes<\/p>\n body voiceless in circles<\/p>\n siren singing as the body the impossible extension<\/p>\n made flesh little muse she turned down the vaccine<\/p>\n her body dancing to the death with polio in Balanchine\u2019s ballet<\/p>\n is this the only way to get free<\/p>\n from the choreography to unbind waist feet this rhyme at last<\/p>\n some ballet term for it <\/em>writes Carson<\/p>\n fragment of foil, little<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n overgrown girl in mermaid bridal gown<\/p>\n my dance with death all I wanted was to cut free to go out<\/p>\n breathing in circles those stitches blown loose all the beads undone<\/p>\n I go walking in circles in Copenhagen<\/p>\n where years ago as a bride as a pretty young singer with mermaid hair<\/p>\n I curled on the floor in the airport<\/p>\n too sick to move my life calling out there on the water<\/p>\n all the old songs falling out<\/p>\n of my lungs all the coloratura ballet<\/p>\n all my silence in all the wrong places locked up in the bathroom<\/p>\n little wife always in trouble for crumbs on the table<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n leave me here <\/em>I would say now<\/p>\n leave me out here with water and light<\/em><\/p>\n wash me out in the Sound<\/em><\/p>\n let me listen to no song but this let me learn it <\/em><\/p>\n a whole year of vowels before<\/em><\/p>\n I start singing it back<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" READ LOCAL First\u00a0represents Utah\u2019s\u00a0most comprehensive collection of\u00a0celebrated and promising writers of fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and memoir. This month we bring you Heidi Hart. Hart teaches German and English at Weber State University. She is a Pushcart Prize-winning poet with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1566,"featured_media":48413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2513],"tags":[1710],"class_list":["post-48400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","category-read-local-first","tag-15-bytes-book-awards"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Heidi-Hart-1-e1575309253846.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 12:45:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48400"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48409,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48400\/revisions\/48409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}