Tom Ruud •

Unable for the World to Sleep

Tom Ruud’s first collection of poems, Unable for the World to Sleep, builds like a memoir, beginning with firsts, childhood, newly self-aware, and also newly self-divided. Readers receive the mythological and historical references we anticipate from a classically educated author, unexpectedly mixed with Tolkien references, and a light-heartedness.

Then

Before, I had nothing to say. Then I did.

The front porch door never did close

properly, easily. Something to do with

the set of the hinges, the way the stiles

of the door always wanted to warp

against them. I fixed it twice. Then,

a new door. A carpenter this time.

But it was still the same. After a bit.

So, I was glad it wasn't just me. But

it's still hard going out and coming in.

Always the wrestling, into the world,

out of it, and the warping south sun

dazzling in your face, or daggers

on your returning back.

From Unable for the World to Sleep, by Tom Ruud

About Tom

Tom Ruud lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, Sylvia, and two dogs, Sparky and Pepper. He holds a BA Degree in Classics from Augsburg College, and an MFA Degree in Writing from Hamline University. He is recipient of a Lake Superior Writers Competition Award, a Loft Mentor Series Fellowship, and a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship. He teaches at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, and privately.

Tom on Writing Poetry

The occasion is the thing, the likely moment, a charmed memory, that image which carries a felt atmosphere of invitation for the invisible to show up. Then, the work is to carve out a faithful tailisman, compose a line-to-line incantation, a clutch of speech that forms a shaky bridge for going forward.

From The Double Meaning of Yield: Laurel Poets on Writing Poetry