Tag: California Writers Club

Sharing a Poem for Father’s Day: “My Father’s Tools”

~ twtierney ~ Leave a comment

Our father repaired typewriters, a lost art. Here is a poem recalling his shop in the basement where he let me help him when I was young.

My Father’s Tools

Leaning over typewriter frame, hands
ink dark with calluses, my father reaches
around type bars and brackets, levers
of tempered steel, hooking a spring,
placing the smallest screw
with magnetized driver. He adjusts
to touch, aligning letters
until they flow in perfect lines,
finger strike to paper.

Broken machines wait on bench
with glass jars of spare parts,
needle-nosed pliers worn smooth,
small torch for soldering type,
hooks, benders, crimpers,
oil can with long nozzle,
cleaning tub with black solvent.

He lets me scrub the type
and pivots, bathe them in oil,
wipe them dry until they shine
like reborn souls. Now the typewriters
are gone but I keep his tools,
fixing any problem. I show my son
how to grasp each one, correct angle,
knowing the tool by its function.
He adds his layer of fingerprints,
imagining machines he will build.

This poem is included in my collection, The Poet’s Garage.

Sentient Birds and Broken Glass–Reading for the California Writers Club June 20, 2020

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Here is a clip of me reading three poems from The Poet’s Garage for the California Writer’s Club Book Launch on 6/20/20.

I read with twenty talented writers from the club, and the full video for the event is captured here.

Poem for Independence Day: When It Was Dark Enough

~ twtierney ~ Leave a comment

Reposting my poem When It was Dark Enough to honor my father and uncles who were WWII veterans. I often wonder what they thought during our Fourth of July family picnics when their kids lit off fireworks. Complex irony between the horrors of war and childish fun.

The link takes you to the poetry page on my website where When It Was Dark Enough is the first sample poem.

The Poet’s Garage Pod

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Just for fun and to celebrate the launch of my poetry collection, The Poet’s Garage, from Unsolicited Press, here’s a brief podcast of the title poem.

Based on a true story, the poem tells how we learned there was another Terry Tierney, a suspected felon, living in Lincoln, Nebraska when we moved there. My arrival aroused several official computers. The police and the social services department thought I lied about my quiet life as a graduate student supported by my tolerant, librarian wife.

Ironically, when I wasn’t distracted by writing poetry in Lincoln, I was working on my dissertation about William Makepeace Thackeray and his various protagonists as doubles of himself. Those doubles have much less contrast with one another than me and my apparent double.

The cover of The Poet’s Garage depicts the poem, complete with pools of grease where lines have spilled, the cardboard box of active verbs, and the files of proper nouns. As in the poem, the poet has eluded arrest, so far.

Reading the Poet’s Garage

The Poet’s Garage is available from Unsolicited Press, Powell’s, Barnes and Noble, Amazon and other retailers. You can also support your local bookstore by searching for them on Indiebound.