Poem of the Day: “Your Server for This Evening” by Sarah Rose Nordgren

“Your Server for This Evening” by Sarah Rose Nordgren is the Songs of Eretz Poem of the Day for March 21, 2014.  A link to the poem as it appears in the fall/winter 2013 issue of 32 Poems Magazine may be found here:  http://www.32poems.com.

Sarah Rose Nordgren (pictured) is a teacher in the English Department of the Miami University of Ohio in Middletown.  She was awarded several poetry fellowships, scholarships, and residencies.  Her forthcoming collection, Best Bones, was the winner of the 2013 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize.  Additional biographical information about this up-and-coming poet may be found here:  http://sarahrosenordgren.com.

"Your Server" creates an enchanting moment, made more immediate by its story being told in the first person.  The "I" in the poem may or may not be the poet, but I chose to believe that it is Nordgren speaking directly to her readers.  This makes the poet at once the reader's servant and the reader's most intimate acquaintance--even though you know her not, she knows all about you and what you want.  The meal here is a conceit for the poem itself.  Braggadocio in the manner of Walt Whitman is there, but in a more subtle, seductive, feminine way.