A FAVORITE POEM: “Parkersburg” by Mark Halliday
Here’s a poem David Vick shared with me years ago. David knew I was from the Parkersburg area and that I’d appreciate it.
It’s a poem called “Parkersburg” by Mark Halliday. Since back in the 1990s sometime, the poem’s become somewhat ubiquitous on the Internet.
Since 1996, Halliday has been at Ohio University where he teaches creative writing. His fifth book of poems, “Keep This Forever,” was published last fall by Tupelo Press. “Parkersburg” is from an earlier book called “Jab” from the Phoenix Poets Series and published by the University of Chicago Press. To see the way the poem should look, exact line breaks and all, go to wiredforbooks.org where you can even hear Halliday read the poem.
