Bob Foster is a Bostonian. He attended outreach programs at Harvard and Boston University before deciding to become an actor and studying at the Bishop Lee Theatre Institute in Boston. He toured with Katherine Hepburn in As You Like It for two years before turning to writing and directing plays for the stage and creating a long series of documentary films for the US Information Agency, films shown worldwide on television.Then he turned to poetry. Suzanne Lummis, Sarah Maclay and Cecilia Wolloch have been important mentors to him, and for the past nine years he’s been leading the terrific Saturday poetry workshop at Beyond Baroque. His book will come out in the next year or so.
Bob’s rich background in theater and film has served him well in poetry: theatrical and cinematic touches abound, whether he’s writing about a dysfunctional family’s drama, or a day of fishing off Fire Island, or a cartoon hunter and leopardess, or an older gentleman’s nostalgic walk through an automotive museum. Because of Bob’s background in show business, he is always conscious of the audience; he’s always engaged with the audience, whether on the page or on stage. He has a passion for poetry that is infectious, and he’s said that he finds poetry-writing more interesting and satisfying than any other career he’s had. And every Saturday at Beyond Baroque, at half-past one, you can find him leading his terrific writing workshop, where his close reading of poems and his insights are deeply appreciated. Bob believes in free verse and immediacy and humor. He’s a master at cutting out unnecessary words. He is generous and kind in his support for and enthusiasm about others. I can’t wait for his book to come out.
I
Want to Go in Motion
not lingering horizontal
or propped up in a winter chair
but jogging
hooded
in fall rain
A lightning rush of heartbeats
a slow final blink
a view of trees
shining in their wind colors
Or walking on new stones
green with algae
a clot moves
a stagger
a splash
Driving through a storm
seized in a tornado
slammed
whirled
blown anonymous
not lingering horizontal
or propped up in a winter chair
but jogging
hooded
in fall rain
A lightning rush of heartbeats
a slow final blink
a view of trees
shining in their wind colors
Or walking on new stones
green with algae
a clot moves
a stagger
a splash
Driving through a storm
seized in a tornado
slammed
whirled
blown anonymous
© 2014
Bob Foster
Bob Foster was a Featured Poet who read his poetry at the August 2014 Second Sunday Poetry Series
Bob Foster was a Featured Poet who read his poetry at the August 2014 Second Sunday Poetry Series