After a search for work took her single mother to St. Louis, from age ten Pat lived in tenements and in an orphanage until she was given a scholarship to college. Those early experiences have deeply influenced her writing, and fueled her passion for those who have been denied voice through poverty and other misfortunes.
"How the Stars Came Down" is a snapshot of a night in her childhood, a shift in her vision, and it's lovely, lovely.
How the Stars Came Down
by Pat Schneider
Night. How the stars came down
arching over us, and the only name
we had for them was shooting stars.
Why there were so many was anybody's guess.
My great grandmother thought the world
was coming to an end when Haley's comet
....
(Read the rest here, at The Writer's Almanac.)
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The Poetry Friday roundup is at Carol's Corner.
(Photo thanks to Free Images.)
