Ted McMahon
Born in 1946 to second-generation Irish parents, Ted McMahon grew up in Oak Hill Park, near Boston, one of the many post-WWII planned residential developments.
He graduated from Williams College and Duke University School of Medicine, completed a residency in Pediatrics at Children’s Orthopedic Hospital (now Seattle Children’s), and practiced outpatient pediatrics in Eugene, OR, and later Seattle, from 1976–2014.
Since 1998 he has channeled his love of language into poetry. His poems have appeared in The Seattle Review, The Comstock Review, and The Journal of the American Medical Association, among others. His chapbook, First Fire, was published in 1996, and his full-length collection, The Uses of Imperfection, in 2003. He received a Jack Straw Fellowship in 2003, an Artist Trust GAP grant in 2004, and has served as an editor at Floating Bridge Press and the online journal Bracken.
Since 1986, Ted has lived in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood with his wife Rosanne Olson— photographer, musician, and artist.
|
|
|
Poem from Visitations
Sushi
I wished to learn the art of sushi. I told my teacher so. He said, first learn the art of growing rice. Harvests later I approached again. Teach me to make sushi. He replied, now learn the art of making knives. For a decade I crafted fine blades. Back at the master’s feet I asked again. Learn the art of catching fish, he said. Finally I returned, a silver-haired fisherman. I have done as you required, I said. Now teach me to prepare sushi. What have you been eating all these years? he asked. Rice, of course, and whatever bit of fish, sliced fine, the day’s net brings. Sometimes only seaweed. Sit here, he said, the rest I can teach you in a day.
