The Tuesday Poem this week is Talking Mean by Seattle poet Paul Hunter

Selected by Tuesday Poet T Clear of Seattle, Washington, it begins like this:

'Set out along that dark porch they would talk
about which was meaner a rooster
dairy bull coon hound or rattlesnake
one would say leastways a rooster will warn you
the way he crows and struts likewise a rattler
if he don’t get stepped on sound asleep
unlike your copperhead or cottonmouth'

T Clear says, 'I know few poets who can deliver a poem with more eloquence and presence than Paul Hunter. When he takes out his "come to Jesus" voice, there's nothing to be done but to submit to listening. Paul has the kind of voice where I often don't know where the conversation ends and the poem begins. When I met with him recently, we were standing in his study, and he showed me a Farm Journal periodical where he was a featured poet, and all of a sudden I realized he was several lines into his poem ...'

On Tuesday Poem you can hear Paul Hunter read the whole of Talking Mean and find out more about him. Also, in the sidebar are poems selected or written by 30 Tuesday Poets from the NZ, Australia, US and the UK -- find treasures by poets like Les Murray, Anna Jackson, Tim Jones, Yusef Kounyakaa and much more . Go there, enjoy!