Harry Houdini never gets far from the news. There's always a movie coming out, or a book, and every other magician has to face comparison to the legendary master. Here, the California poet Kay Ryan encapsulates the man and says something wise about celebrity.
- Ted Kooser
"Houdini"
Each escape
involved some art,
some hokum, and
at least a brief
incomprehensible
exchange between
the man and metal
during which the
chains were not
so much broken
as he and they
blended. At the
end of each such
mix he had to
extract himself. It
was the hardest
part to get right
routinely: breaking
back into the
same Houdini.
Ted Kooser was U.S. poet laureate, 2004-06. Copyright 2004 by Kay Ryan. Reprinted from "Poetry," November 2004, with permission of the author. This column does not accept unsolicited poetry.