The Sacred
Stephen Dunn
After the teacher asked if anyone had
a sacred place
and the students fidgeted and shrank
in their chairs, the most serious of them all
said it was his car,
being in it alone, his tape deck playing
things he’d chosen, and others knew the truth
had been spoken
and began speaking about their rooms,
their hiding places, but the car kept coming up,
the car in motion,
music filling it, and sometimes one other person
who understood the bright altar of the dashboard
and how far away
a car could take him from the need
to speak, or to answer, the key
in having a key
and putting it in, and going
Finding Common Ground
Do you identify at all with the feelings of the speaker in “The Sacred”?
1. Dunn’s speaker may be both escaping and seeking, both running away from something and running
toward something else. When he pulls out of his driveway, what is he leaving behind—or trying to leave behind—and what is he trying to find?
2. If it were you in the poem, what would the “bright altar of the dashboard” represent, and what would be your equivalent of “the need / to speak, or to answer”?
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