New Poetry by Jon Andersen

Ms. Betsy Has a Bank
of windows in her classroom.
Take a look out there:
across the street's a big building.
That's a different kind of bank
with lots of money, tons
and tons of money!
More money than you can think about.
Windows let in, let out
cold, heat.
You could yell someone's secrets
out a window. When it's still
sloshy and cold out you could put plants
by the window and watch them grow.
Danny's crazy uncle jumped out a window.
He didn't die, but he didn't fly. Now
he walks funny. Windows let in,
let out light.
Windows are like eyes
because they let us see.
(Ms. Betsy's windows must be
some sick people's eyes, they only open a little).
Hey, windows are eyes:
early in the morning or late at night
we look right into them
and see ourselves.

Jon Andersen's accalimed book of poems is
Stomp and Sing: 74 pp. paperback, $12.95. Curbstone Press, 321 Jackson St., Willimantic, CT 06226. 860-423-5110,
email: info@curbstone.org. http://www.curbstone.org

Jon Andersen was born in 1970 in New London, Connecticut, only a few minutes ahead of his fraternal twin brother Phillip.

His mother and father worked nights and weekends to rebuild an old farmhouse in nearby East Lyme that had belonged to his mother's family for a number of generations, and they moved there in 1972. For many years his father, a Vietnam Veteran, was employed as a shipper and truck driver for a fruit and produce company, while his mother worked as a cook in a small elementary school.

His parents encouraged spirited political and philosophical conversations around the dinner table, and at an early age he began to think about both the honors and injustices of hard work in America.

He graduated from the University of Connecticut with a B.A. in English and a Concentration in Creative Writing. After working variously as a lumberyard employee, landscape laborer, mountain trail crew member, farmhand, and warehouse worker, he earned secondary English teaching certification from Central Connecticut State University and special education certification from Southern Connecticut State University.

Currently, he teaches at E. O. Smith High School in Storrs, Connecticut and lives in Willimantic. His poetry has appeared in numerous periodicals, including The Cafe Review, Connecticut Review, The Progressive and Rattle. Stomp and Sing is his first full-length collection of poetry.