on>
THE BLESSING
ALSO BY GREGORY ORR
Poetry
The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write
River Inside the River
How Beautiful the Beloved
Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved
The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems
Orpheus and Eurydice
City of Salt
New and Selected Poems
We Must Make a Kingdom of It
The Red House
Gathering the Bones Together
Burning the Empty Nests
Criticism
A Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry
Poetry as Survival
Poets Teaching Poets: Self and the World, edited with Ellen Bryant Voigt
Richer Entanglements: Essays and Notes on Poetry and Poems
Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry
THE BLESSING
A Memoir
Gregory Orr
MILKWEED EDITIONS
© 2002, 2004, Text by Gregory Orr
Original edition published by Council Oak Books in Tulsa, OK.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher: Milkweed Editions, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Suite 300, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415.
(800) 520-6455
Published 2019 by Milkweed Editions
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design by Mary Austin Speaker
Cover art by iStock (watercolor) and Featurepics (vector)
19 20 21 22 23 5 4 3 2 1
First Edition
Milkweed Editions, an independent nonprofit publisher, gratefully acknowledges sustaining support from the Ballard Spahr Foundation; the Jerome Foundation; the McKnight Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Target Foundation; and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. Also, this activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund. For a full listing of Milkweed Editions supporters, please visit milkweed.org.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Orr, Gregory, author.
Title: The blessing : a memoir / Gregory Orr.
Description: First Edition. | Minneapolis, MN : Milkweed Editions, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019001876 (print) | LCCN 2019013395 (ebook) | ISBN 9781571317223 (ebook) | ISBN 9781571313867 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Orr, Gregory—Childhood and youth. | Orr, Gregory—Family. | Poets, American—20th century—Biography.
Classification: LCC PS3565.R7 (ebook) | LCC PS3565.R7 Z46 2019 (print) | DDC 811/.54 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019001876
Milkweed Editions is committed to ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book production practices with this principle, and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment. We are a member of the Green Press Initiative, a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the world’s endangered forests and conserve natural resources. The Blessing was printed on acid-free 30% postconsumer-waste paper by Sheridan Books, Inc.
For Trisha, who believed in this book
CONTENTS