Stephen Dunn

Born in New York City in 1939 and educated at Hofstra University, Stephen Dunn briefly played professional basketball and worked as a copywriter before receiving his MFA in poetry from Syracuse University. Dunn won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 2001. This poem is from his 1989 collection, Between Angels.

After the teacher asked if anyone had

a sacred place

and the students fidgeted and shrank

in their chairs, the most serious of them all

5

said it was his car,

being in it alone, his tape deck playing

things he’d chosen, and others knew the truth

had been spoken

and began speaking about their rooms,

10

their hiding places, but the car kept coming up,

the car in motion,

music filling it, and sometimes one other person

who understood the bright altar of the dashboard

and how far away

15

a car could take him from the need

to speak, or to answer, the key

in having a key

and putting it in, and going.

(1989)