ITHACA, N.Y. (WHCU) — A pair of Ithaca College poets recently won prizes.

Eric Machan Howd and Kathryn Howd Machan received awards at the Dancing Poetry Festival in California. Kathryn says students infuse her with energy.

 Eric echoes that sentiment.

“The energy that they have, the new perspectives, new eyes on life that they bring, for me — especially when I was teaching more full-time — I learn as much from them as they learn from me,” he says.

Each of their award-winning poems dealt with death. Read both below.

How to Write an Elegy

Katharyn Howd Machan

 

Think gardens, round tomatoes growing

under hands in love with sun

where small toads linger beneath vines,

wide brown mouths that seem to smile

as they blink eyes of topaz jewels.

Remember the pop of sweet green peppers

twisting off at your first try.

 

Hear music, the old piano’s notes

rising from pages just inscribed

with songs and symphonies for a world

that listens, asks again to listen

to what curved fingers bring to keys,

black and white notes’ resonance

echoing long before they die.

 

Welcome evening fairy tales,

the Lord’s Prayer firm on reverent tongue.

Praise good laughter on long walks

for autumn’s mushrooms, summer’s grapes.

And hold again the simple paintbrush,

how you learned to shape a window

wider than a door’s goodbye.

 

Putting Together the Patio Swing

Eric Machan Howd

 

I don’t complain about the time it will take

to construct or how the box won’t fit

into the back of my car, how our hands

 

will need to hold it in place as we drive

up the hill to the home we have made

together after our children have moved out.

 

You chose this to be the reality

of your cash gift from the college,

for years of giving to the mission.

 

You picked it out because of its comfort

and shade, especially because it matched

the browns and tans of our facade.

 

This is your time and your celebration

and I know how hard you work

to remain seen in this world.

 

This recognition I willingly piece together

for you. The directions are clear. The tools

are small but as I work through the afternoon

 

I think about death, how someday

this furniture will be removed

to make way for something new.

 

I am silent as I tighten joints and balance

cross bars by myself. You stay near, clearing

winter from pots of earth. We don’t talk

 

about the pain of our aging bodies anymore.

When this swing is done, we will sit with wine

and quietly regard what still needs repair.

 

FULL INTERVIEW: Kathryn and Eric on Ithaca’s Morning News