When John Smith sailed up the Potomac in 1608, the Nacotchtanck (Necostin) people inhabited the land now known as Arlington, and it’s virtually certain that poetry in Arlington predates European settlers. Indeed, poetry has been written in Virginia since at least the early 1600s, as is
clear from this fragment of a longer piece recorded around 1612 by William Strachey in The Historie of Travaile Into Virginia Britannia. It commemorates a Powhatan victory in battle over the English in 1610, near what is now Richmond.
Mat-a-ne-rew sha-sha-she-waw e-ra-wan-go pe-che-co-ma
Whe Tas-san-tas-sa in-o-shas-haw-ye-hoc-kan po-co-sack:
Whe whe, yah ha-ha ne-he wit-to-wa, wit-to-wa. (2)
One of the earliest examples of poetry specific to Arlington was published by George Washington’s step-grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, who inherited the land where Arlington House was built in the early 1800s. “Lines written for the Centennial Anniversary of
the Birth of Washington. Feb 22 1832, by George Washington P. Custis of Arlington” begins:
A Century’s gone by. All hail the Day
An infant Washington first saw the light.
That beamed with pure & mild benignant ray
on one who’s course was destined to be bright. (3)
(1) Poetry Alive at Iota: The Iota Poetry Series 10th Anniversary Reading (Minimus
Productions, 2005), Poetry Alive: The Iota Poetry series 20th Anniversary Reading (Minimus
Productions, 2014), and 31 Arlington Poets (Paycock Press, 2004).
(2) Conway Whittle Sams, The Conquest of Virginia: the Forest Primeval (New York & London:
G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1913), 321-322.
Written in Arlington
by Katherine E. Young*
Touching down, Runway 1-19,
the sun sets over Hains Point.
Spotlights pattern darkness,
pattern a Pentagon “levitated” in ’67,
pattern hallowed ground
where some Lees of Arlington once lived,
where the bones of the enslaved
still await commemoration:
sweet tones, somber tones
between black and white.
Luminous green rooms
marking the river, twilight bikers
seek epiphany along Mount Vernon Trail.
Beside 395, T. Mc. spray-paints
undying love for Barbie Taylor.
Confession beneath plum trees:
tree cutting protects the overhead wires.
Overnight, maples turn into pumpkins;
march of the leaf blowers, autumn glory.
What I know about love so far:
chocolate on the wedding dress,
my mother’s rolling pin,
my son telling me about lockdown drills
at Abingdon Elementary.
Wild angels echo
in Washington’s woodlands,
in lights in the diner,
in neon rain at midnight.
The Greeks had a word
for the commonwealth of the universe
and other small spaces;
in the suburbs you can have a perfect life.
*Assembled from poem titles in the anthology Written in Arlington (Paycock Press, 2020). Original poems by Linda Ankrah-Dove, Sandra Beasley, Cristi Donoso Best, Dan Brady, Mary Kate Cranston, Katherine Gekker, Robert L. Giron, Alexandra Delaine Hailey, Paul Hopper, Maryann Hurtt, Brian Donnell James, Jacqueline Jules, Sarah Lilius, Laura Martin, David McAleavey, Susan Miller, Susan Bucci Mockler, Miles David Moore, Carol Heller Nation, Kim O’Connell, Jose Padua, Richard Peabody, Ann Rayburn, Martha Sanchez-Lowery, Michael A. Schaffner, and Karenne Wood.
