Contributed by Shannon Tharp: “Laura Jensen, ‘The Goodyear Blimp,’ from Memory (1982). I read this poem for the first time when I lived in Seattle, 34 miles from Laura Jensen’s hometown of Tacoma. Years later, the poem still has nothing to do with water and still leaves me with the feeling of having stood near water on a Pacific Northwest beach in perfect sun. The poem also meets me where I am now, Wyoming, and reminds me of another place I’ve lived: Iowa. What I’m getting at with this little history is that, if one takes care in reading Jensen’s poem, one ends up occupied by multiple realms—all of which could be said to be a part of ‘the brief sweet world of the saved.’ I’m so grateful this luminous transmission of feeling-thinking exists.” @mmebottomline
