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Fargo, 1957: An Elegy by Jamie Parsley

Presented by Spirit Room at Spirit Room

December 18, 2010

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FARGO, 1957

An Elegy by JAMIE PARSLEY

In the early evening of Thursday, June 20, 1957, a tornado struck the city of Fargo, North Dakota. When it was done, ten people lay dead (three more people would later die from their injuries), a city was devastated and countless lives would never be the same again.

Among the dead were two relatives of Jamie Parsley, a poet and an Episcopal priest, who was born almost thirteen years after the storm. In this evocative and moving elegy of the storm and its victims, Parsley, an Associate Poet Laureate of North Dakota, weaves a heartbreaking story of loss, poetry, pain, faith and ultimately renewal, and gives voice to those victims who, before now, were unable to speak for themselves. Fargo, 1957 is the story of the resilience and fortitude of the people who survived of the storm and those who did not.

JAMIE PARSLEY has been an Associate Poet Laureate of North Dakota since 2004. Born in Fargo and raised near Harwood, ND, the first of his ten books of poems, Paper Doves, Falling and Other Poems, was published in 1992. Over the next 17 years, he published eight more books of poems including The Loneliness of Blizzards (1995), a book-length poem, Cloud: A Poem in 2 Acts (1997), The Wounded Table (1999), earth into earth, water into water (2000), no stars, no moon (2004), Ikon (2005), Just Once (2007) and This Grass (2009), a book of poems accompanied by paintings by artist Gin Templeton. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Vermont College and a Master’s degree from Nashotah House Seminary. An Episcopal priest, he serves as Priest in Charge of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in North Fargo and as Executive Assistant to the Bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of North Dakota. He also teaches at the University of Mary’s Fargo campus. He lives in Fargo. His website is www.jamieparsley.com.