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KK in IN

 Poets from Indiana, Karen Kovacik

This one, yes, this poet is fully Indiana. She was born in East Chicago, grew up in Highland, worked in Indianapolis, and lived in Crown Point. She even held the Indiana Poet Laureate position for a term. I suspect that sometimes her own work gets overshadowed by the wonderful translation work she does of Polish poets, but she's a excellent poet on her own. In fact, many classic images of The Region show up in her work, including some nice portraits of life both as a child and later as an adult coming to terms with her Polish heritage.  

One of my favorites comes from her book Beyond the Velvet Curtain, and it's titled "Babel." Here's an excerpt. 

Scum from the pickle crock, dumplings with plum
the Slovak uncles tossing old Stephen to the celing,
while the American daddy I thought was so smart
shrieked dobry, dobry, like a dim bird
from Bratislava, and Babcia flapped
her veined, impatient hands at him. 



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