Today’s poem, “Goodbye to the Old Life”, is by Wesley McNair. Wes is the author of nine books of poems, most recently The Lost Child: the Ozark Poems and he’s currently professor emeritus and Writer in Residence at the University of Maine Farmington, where he directed the creative writing program for many years. He also served as Maine’s poet laureate.
"Every poem I write takes many drafts, in a long process of trying and failing. What I'm trying for always is a naturalness of voice, so the poem sounds as if it's not a poem at all, just someone talking to you about a thing deeply felt. I also value humor, not stand-up comedy, but humor that comes from life experience, in all its complexity.