Sherry Chandler

Charles M. Whitt

Envisioning

I came from a farm
where machinery was simple and friendly
and was, in my first sight,
a work of art.
McCormick’s name proudly embossed
on the horse-drawn mower’s gearbox
was the first thing I noticed.
Spokes of gears swept out
from their hubs in graceful spirals;
steel cleated wheels were designed
as much for effect as function.
It hummed, and clicked, and whispered
its way through the grass
telling me that its purpose
was a good one.
Old machinery employed finesse
rather than the brute power of today.
They sharpened cutter sections
as carefully as a blade of fine razor steel.
Oiling, was a ritual, neglect, a sin.
But technology forces unneeded change
and I guess we were somehow born thinking
that bigger and faster was better.
Bigger machines needed stronger steel
and there were those, then, who could see
a pile of red, rock ore,
and envision a pinioned shaft
spinning within a great, powerful engine.

—Charles M. Whitt, from Working Steel

Back in October, at the Kentucky State Poetry Society annual meeting, Charles M. Whitt very graciously presented me with a copy of his 1987 collection of poetry, Working Steel. He has now very graciously allowed me to share some of those poems with you. “Envisioning” is the opening poem in the volume.

Working Steel is a handsome saddle-stapled chapbook with illustrations by Debbie Spears. It is of great value as a thoughtful working man’s observations of the Ashland Steel Works. Jesse Stuart took one look at working steel in Ashland and ran away as quick as he could downriver; Charlie Whitt worked for over twenty years in what John Skaggs describes in the introduction as the “smoke, steam, dust, heat, cold, and fatigue” of a steel mill. From that work he has given us this volume of poems in the robust language of the working man, poems in the tradition of Carl Sandburg, Philip Levine, Wendell Berry.

Charlie says he still has a few copies of Working Steel, a collector’s item and a great bargain at $3. You can order a copy from:

Charles M. Whitt
976 Pinson Ridge
South Shore, KY 41175

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