# I'm trying to locate a modern poem without success

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-trying-to-locate-a-modern-poem-without-success/969457>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** poetry\
**Created:** [August 10, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-trying-to-locate-a-modern-poem-without-success/969457 "2022-08-10T22:21:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-trying-to-locate-a-modern-poem-without-success/969457/1 "2022-08-10T22:21:08Z")

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Before he experienced scandal, Garrison Keillor did a daily piece called “The Writer’s Almanac” on my local NPR station, where he would talk about literature and then conclude with a poem. There was one that was fairly lengthy, from the viewpoint of a woman who married in the late 1960s or early 1970s and talks as she turns pages in a photo album, as they happily celebrate birthdays, have children, etc. and around 1975, the poem concludes with a line that is something like “this was around the time that the skies began to darken.”

I have investigated TWA’s website and poem search engines without success. Dopers?

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**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-trying-to-locate-a-modern-poem-without-success/969457/2 "2022-08-10T22:29:23Z")

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you looked through the [Writers Almanac archives](https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/radio-categories/twa-2018/)  
already?

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-trying-to-locate-a-modern-poem-without-success/969457/3 "2022-08-10T22:36:04Z")

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Sort of. There’s no search engine there, that I could find, although Google does link to it. Found a lot of other poems, but not that one.

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2022, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-trying-to-locate-a-modern-poem-without-success/969457/4 "2022-10-01T03:50:50Z")

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I found it. It was called “Bell Bottoms and Platform Shoes.”

> **[Poem: “Bell Bottoms and Platform Shoes"](https://mariagillan.blogspot.com/2017/11/poem-bell-bottoms-and-platform-shoes.html)**
>
> The official blog for poet, artist, and teacher Maria Mazziotti Gillan.