“My father works for the Martin Drake power plant in Colorado Springs. Other men make radiators or poems. He makes lightning and puts his sun in your house.”That’s how Reed Underwood, 21, describes his dad’s job in “The Power Plant. A Georgic.” In person, the wiry, bearded poet puts it in more basic words: “It’s just this very noisy, loud, hot, smelly, unpleasant place,” he says. “It’s also crucially important.”The idea to turn coal-fired electricity into free verse was sparked when he was a boy.”Years ago, my father told me a Greek myth of the god Prometheus who steals fire from Zeus and he brings it down to humans and gives it to them,” Reed says. “He made the comparison to himself. That got me interested in writing and mythology.”Reed started the poem-in-progress after Christmas break from Colorado State University. Check it out at: www.reedunderwood.wordpress.com and on the “Wire Poet” video.It’s not a simple read. It doesn’t rhyme. It’s disconnected. It’s rich in images: “Electricity is brevity and power at once” and “When my cousin was a boy, he thought the power plant was a cloud factory.”That’s how many folks see it, as just a big vapor blob on the city’s horizon.”It’s what separates the modern world from ages ago,” Reed says. “When you see lights blinking on across the world at the turn of the century, that’s what makes us who we are. On the other hand, electricity is something nobody thinks about, unless it isn’t working.”Reed is the guy you want on your team at bar trivia nights. “Practical stuff sticks less than random semiuseless information,” he says. “There’s a lot of things that don’t stick. I’ve been told my Social Security number numerous times, and it’s never stuck; I still have to call my mom.”Even with his respect for heavy machinery, he still can’t operate a car. “I never got my license. It kind of intimidated me, the idea my little body could control that big of a thing,” he says.The one time he tried, he crashed into a tree.Power plant work isn’t for him, either. “I think it’s admirable work. I don’t think I’m man enough to do it.”He’s the man who makes poems.”Labor is badly under-recognized as a force in the world and as a vehicle for poetry. It’s important labor be written about in a way that honors it rather than picking it apart and analyzing it like an economist or Marxist would do.”What does Dad think? “It makes me feel good because he understands my work,” Brian Underwood says. “It makes me feel heroic.”That’s Reed’s point.”My father did all this work for me, so I could sit around and write poems about what he does.”Got a comment? andrea.brown@gazettedev.gazette.com

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