Rockville, Maryland
Home has suddenly become the collective center of existence again. Last week, we heard a song about it. Other songs tell you you can never go back. This week, Dustin Duby-Koffman, who is a talented songwriter in his own right, pushes back on that notion in a poem about his titular hometown, which can stand in for any hometown since, as he writes, “You have to be / from somewhere.”
Dustin is a master of assonance. Listen how the bright “e” sounds string together in that first stanza–leave, trees, pink, breed–and then strategically high-five the next stanza with “speaks.” There’s also some killer enjambment here, linking ideas in exponential ways. Think: piles of pink. The air wafts with or of every breed. Fitzgerald lies. And speaking of Fitzgerald, I had no idea this bard of St. Paul (near my own someplace) was buried in Rockville! Learning from poems is my preferred method of absorption and I honestly learn something every time I work with Dustin.
Dustin has not only brought new ideas into my life, but a flood of art. Over the past year, he has been writing poems about art from the Glenstone Museum, which is near Rockville. A couple weeks ago we were supposed to celebrate these ekphrastic poems at the museum itself, whose entire staff has embraced Dustin’s writing with incredible verve. They decided to celebrate them on Instagram for the time being:
I hope these dispatches help fill your own home with “piles of pink” and “big bold blooms,” amid the general suffering. Coming home is something we do every day, even if we never leave. It’s an opportunity to revision our most intimate spaces, our own personal “Goldilocks planets” with fresh eyes. See you there.
Close and Snug,
Chris
PS: You can support Dustin and Unrestricted Interest by purchasing your own copy of his amazing chapbook, Eating Broccoli on the Moon. No shipping delays!