Pacific Northwest Poet Pays Tribute To Boston

Continuing our coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings, we speak to a Pacific Northwest poet who pays tribute to Boston.

Scott Poole of Vancouver, Wash., is the House Poet for the Oregon Public Broadcasting show "Live Wire." He's also a long distance runner.

The bombings on Monday inspired him to write the poem, "To Run - A Prayer for Boston," which he shares with us (see below).

Poole tells Here & Now's Robin Young that he sees the pain involved in running a marathon as a metaphor for what's happening now.

"The fact that the marathoners push through that pain and conquer it inspires us and makes us hope for something better, and I think we're all just hoping the same exact thing for Boston right now," he said.

By Scott Poole:

To Run
~a prayer for Boston

To run
is to rise above the weak spirit
is to take on pain
is to push pain in the chest
with both palms

stumbling over garbage,
gravel, fragments of life,

is to say I will take you
on in the street.
Every breath of mine
is a battering ram,

shoving, crushing,
swinging a hammer of air.

I am a body of fast moving blood
inhaling you
taking you in like a tank.
I will consume your hate.

I will run straight into you
as if you were a finish line of joy,
picking up the fallen along the way
and you will never stop me,
you will never
stop me.