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Hurt Into Beauty by Paul Hostovsky

Poems from Is That What That Is featured on
The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor

 

Garrison Keillor read “Happiness” on National Public Radio’s
The Writer’s Almanac
on December 10, 2017.
“Happiness” is from Is That What That Is by Paul Hostovsky.

Happiness

The dog isn’t happy
unless his head is
sticking out the car window.

The man isn’t happy
unless his head is
happy.

The man and the dog
have this in common,
thinks the man,

driving around with the dog
in the backseat, nose
in the wind, happiness

in the air.

Garrison Keillor read “One Ambition” on National Public Radio’s
The Writer’s Almanac
on October 19, 2017.
“One Ambition” is from Is That What That Is by Paul Hostovsky.

One Ambition

All I ever really wanted
was to whistle with my fingers--

I knew I would never
be the one up on stage

blowing everybody away
with beauty, brilliance, virtuosity…

But to be the lightning
inside the thunderous applause,

to have the audacity
and the manual dexterity

to make a siren screeching
through a dark auditorium,

to be the killer hawk
in all that parroting, pattering rain,

to be, finally, the very best at praise--
now that was something

I thought that if I gave my life to
I might attain.

 

Garrison Keillor read “The Calculus” on National Public Radio’s
The Writer’s Almanac
on August 9, 2017.
“The Calculus” is from Is That What That Is by Paul Hostovsky.

The Calculus

My hygienist likes to include me
in the decision making.
“Shall we use the hand scaler
or the ultrasonic today?” she asks me.
I like the way she says “we,”
like we’re doing something intimate
and collaborative,
like building a snowman,
or more like dismantling one
after an ice storm, flake
by frozen flake. “The calculus
is caused by precipitation
of minerals from your saliva,” she explains.
“You can’t remove it with your toothbrush.
Only a professional can do that.” She’s very
professional. She doesn’t dumb it down.
“Pay more attention to the lingual side
of your mandibular anteriors,” she says.
I love it when she talks like that.
I love the names of teeth: incisor, third molar, bicuspid,
eye-tooth. Her own teeth are
virtuosic. “Calculus comes from the Greek
for stone,” she says. “In mathematics
it’s counting with stones. In medicine,
it’s the mineral buildup in the body: kidney stones,
tartar on teeth.” She teaches me all this
as I sit there with my mouth open,
looking astonished.

 

Garrison Keillor read “The New Criticism” on National Public Radio’s
The Writer’s Almanac
on August 8, 2017.
“The New Criticism” is from Is That What That Is by Paul Hostovsky.

The New Criticism

My stepdaughter
says I’m boring.
“Everything you say
is boring and like
so seventies.” Her mother
says I’m wonderful, though.
“She’s being fresh. Don’t
listen to her,” she says.
But I can’t help listening
because I want to be
fresh and not boring,
and I want to say ‘like’
like my stepdaughter
because everything
is like something, not
exactly but sort of.
And she’s so contemporary
and provocative and like
alive. She knows all the new
neologisms and would
never use neologism
in a poem. Like ever.