Ring of Fire
by E.G. Burrows
On clear days, wisps of steam
drift from one cone to another,
kettles near boil or cooling
on several horizons, but which
after so many centuries will blow?
One did, famously. Who’s next?
When the clouds obscure,
your concerns fall into old patterns
like fear of fog, dogs
howling, chainsaws in the windfall
breaking loose, homing
toward the heart’s heat like missiles.
They’re waiting for you,
the troubled mountains, to turn your back,
to forget what you owe, to let
everything be explained
by shrinks and politicians.
Hey, buster, they’re waiting for you.
Edwin G. Burrows managed the University of Michigan’s radio stations WUOM and WVGR. He interviewed about 500 individuals for a cultural arts program titled The Eleventh Hour, including Alvin Ailey, Robert Bly, and Kurt Vonnegut. Burrows helped charter National Educational Radio (NER), the National Association of Educational Broadcasters’ radio division. He was chairman and a member of the board of network advisors for the National Association of Educational Broadcasters. Burrows was also one of those responsible for the inclusionof radio in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. He retired in 1982.
The materials in this collection concern national goals for educational radio and the relations between radio and television within the National Association of Educational Broadcasters.