Missouri
Latest work from mid-Missouri poet Elijah Burrell conveys needed messages
A holy wink opens “Skies of Blur,” the third and latest collection from mid-Missouri poet Elijah Burrell.
The wink travels from Jesus to the future St. Peter, but also from the poet to his reader across these initial lines: “In Simon Peter’s native tongue, / I wonder if boat and doubt sound slant.”
Here, Burrell raises questions of what a poem — what our language — can be, and how we locate ourselves in relationship. Should we take words, passed from one soul to another, so serious? Not really. Do we ever take our words seriously enough? Again, no echoes in our ears.
Over the course of these poems and pages, Burrell reveals an in-plain-sight mystery: We are always translating. Our experiences, someone’s pigeon-carried letters, the low brass hum of everyday life — each needs to be massaged and manifest in ways we might understand, if not act upon.
In “Skies of Blur,” the poet takes his turn putting his hand to the plow of translation, making our world make at least a few percentage points more sense. Burrell, a longtime professor at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, will continue this act of translation live when he reads from “Skies of Blur” at Skylark Bookshop Tuesday.
How the poet learns to listen — and models listening for us
Burrell reinforces this mission in the book’s second poem “Doing My Best to Listen.” Here, beneath the carbon-copy shelter of a gas station, he tunes his antennae to “a dozen voices calling—coyotes frenzied beneath a moon / they couldn’t see for the clouds.”
These are not simply wild, wordless voices, Burrell comes to understand, but sound and wonder, a fulfillment of the atmosphere around him, just one way of relaying “a message in transit to me my whole life.”
These messages, of what should and shouldn’t be, of simple glories and the stretch into oneness, face unsound barriers. The strangeness of the American dream labors to stop, or at least strain, them. Under his “American Umbrella,” Burrell slips into the guise of a cross-eyed dreamer who sees better than most.
“I spin plates every moment of my life. / I see nothing but yard sale pianos with songs inside them. / I have what they call a can-do attitude,” the poet writes in opening lines that, again, both wink and lament through the white spaces.
By poem’s end, in light of our national reliance on the almighty gun, the narrator’s plates crash, their umbrella ruptures.
Stories we can’t personally approach slow our understanding — until we tell them to each other, as Burrell’s narrator does in “Death and the King of Rock ‘N’ Roll.” Following the voluminous fill, then fade of an Elvis radio song, he shares the King’s life with his daughter, noticing how absences near and far call out in antiphon:
After Elvis has filled our car with a song,
my youngest daughter asks if he’s still
alive. “No, baby,” I say. “He died the year
Grandma had me.” In the rearview mirror
her faint flinch at the mention of mom.
Subtraction. I sense the math fill her mind.
Another domestic scene unspools through “In a World Gone Mad,” exhibiting the noise of our lives, and the need to listen between the lines.
“October in Missouri, / and I wake up to mass murder out west, / my daughter humming ‘Yer So Bad’ / while spoon-plinking the well of her / white bowl of Cheerios,” Burrell writes.
Poems of memories and messages
As we commit ourselves to translate, and to listen, messages break the noise — and conspicuous silences — in sundry, surprising ways.
Memories collide, then convey their kindnesses, through “the little symphonies from childhood synesthesia” (“Do Not Drive Into Smoke”); distant friends broadcast fragments of speech across “opposite ends / of quiet woods” (“Hailing Old Ghosts from My Silo on the Moon”); and, when everything fails, we keep sitting down to silent pianos, straining our ears for hushed voices, making music until the music comes back (“Unable to Sing”).
Words and their meanings come together, links in an imperfect, exquisite chain; they articulate our blessed smallness in a world of social-media dopamine and ancient weather (“Life in the Gush of Boats”); set us in motion to reconcile all our tenses (“Midlife”); bring our definitions of prayer and belonging into sad relief, so we might see ourselves as we are (“I Was Old When I Left Home”).
And, in one of the book’s late, great poems, we learn the power of exhausting the language for glorious synonyms. “Never Say Love In a Poem” captures the poet at work, trying to evade conventional sincerity and stumbling into something better.
“Listen: The small of her back / is drift, her mouth supermax,” Burrell writes.
And, in two of his finest poems, Burrell pays staggering tribute to his fellow translators, offering hope that we will keep at this work, keep breaking through.
Perhaps my favorite poem of the young year, “This is That Song by Alex Chilton (‘Thirteen’)” honors too-good-for-this-world troubadour Elliott Smith, tracing the passage of sound and “Arizona silence” from a 1997 live show to where the rock bard felt safest.
He closes his eyes. He’s back in Portland,
alone in bed, headphones on, and the birch-
white limbs inside him tremble and bend
from the weight of something cold and falling.
Five lines, “Postlude/Grace” ends the collection and begins something else entirely as the poet hands a guitar and his “indistinct” music to his daughter, whose “miraculous fingers / move down the neck like a surgeon closing a wound / that’s lain open too long.”
These words picture what we are always doing for one another. Here, Burrell writes out his translations, then passes them down to us that we might keep going, keep healing wounds borne alone and shared with others.
Burrell will read at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday; learn more about the evening at https://www.skylarkbookshop.com/new-events.
Aarik Danielsen is the features and culture editor for the Tribune. Contact him at adanielsen@columbiatribune.com or by calling 573-815-1731. He’s on Twitter/X @aarikdanielsen.
WHEATLAND, Mo. — It was all Kerry Madsen on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway as the 54-year-old native of Australia, who’s now based in Knoxville, Iowa, picked up his first Interstate Batteries High Limit Sprint racing victory.
Madsen led all 30 laps to earn the $12,000 prize. He outdistanced runner-up Sue Lynch by 2.79 seconds with Tanner Holmes finishing third.
“The car’s been super quick every time we’ve hit the track,” Madsen said, noting several competitive runs in the early portion of the High Limit schedule. “The car’s been quick every night, which gives you a lot of confidence.
“We haven’t drawn well in dashes and had some little stuff going on. We drew a good one (tonight) and the car was good and we got the job done. I’m pretty happy.”
That changed this time as Madsen beat Holmes in the dash, to claim the pole position for the feature.
Madsen said his young crew chief Ty Wolfgang has “done a great job” getting in sync with him. Communication has been a big key.
“I know it sounds weird, but just hanging out together,” Madsen said of the driver-crew chief chemistry. “Dinner and a beer and just talk about racing. You do that and it might be a Wednesday night, but something clicks. He’s been real receptive with that stuff and that’s great.”
Madsen, a former Knoxville Nationals 360 winner, paced the early going after starting from the pole, with Holmes in close pursuit. Action slowed on lap six with Chase Randall and Danny Samms III tangling in turn two for the first and only yellow of the event.
Lynch moved into second on the restart as Madsen opened a 1.5-second lead by lap nine as Holmes dropped to third. Madsen’s margin swelled to nearly two seconds by lap 11 – but Lynch tracked down the leader and cut the deficit to a half-second at the halfway mark on lap 15.
As the race continued until green-flag conditions, Madsen settled into a one-second advantage as Lynch and Holmes tried to keep pace. Madsen poured it on in the late stages, cruising to the checkers by nearly three seconds over Lynch.
“Hopefully we can keep rolling like this all year. Obviously, you can’t win every night, but being quick and running well is going to be awesome,” Madsen said.
Lynch, 28 from Cowansville, Pa., said the team found some steering issues and gave him a fast car. It just was not fast enough to stay with Madsen on Saturday night.
“We were battling steering issue in the dash and it was pretty obvious,” Lynch said. “We just didn’t have time to change it and we just tried to make it the best we could. Really the car was super good. The guys busted their butt all night. It’s a testament to the team. We’re working hard and hopefully one spot better real soon.”
Holmes, a 22-year-old from Jacksonville, Oregon, came home third with Daison Pursley fourth, Hank Davis fifth and Rico Abreu charging from 11th to sixth.
“Our best night of the year,” Holmes said. “We’ve got to race a little bit during a break with High Limit these last few weeks. Some of those nights when we got our teeth kicked in taught us a lot.”
Fast overall qualifier was Sye Lynch at 13.342 seconds out of Group A. Aaron Reutzel led Group B with a lap of 13.469 seconds. Both were well off the track record for 410 Sprints held by Rico Abreu at 12.829 seconds on June 29, 2024.
The finish:
Feature: 1. 55-Kerry Madsen[1]; 2. 42-Sye Lynch[3]; 3. 13-Tanner Holmes[2]; 4. 9-Daison Pursley[4]; 5. 17GP-Hank Davis[5]; 6. 24-Rico Abreu[11]; 7. 7BC-Tyler Courtney[12]; 8. 77-Giovanni Scelzi[6]; 9. 19-Brent Marks[9]; 10. 26-Justin Peck[10]; 11. 88-Tanner Thorson[15]; 12. 21-Brian Brown[14]; 13. 28-Jace Park[23]; 14. 87-Aaron Reutzel[7]; 15. 19JR-Joel Myers Jr[20]; 16. 45X-Rees Moran[21]; 17. 5-Brenham Crouch[19]; 18. 44-Chris Martin[8]; 19. 19H-Kaleb Johnson[22]; 20. 87X-Logan Seavey[17]; 21. 36-Jason Martin[16]; 22. 9R-Chase Randall[18]; 23. 24D-Danny Sams III[13]; 24. 2-Miles Paulus[24]
The Missouri Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at April 18, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from April 18 drawing
24-25-39-46-61, Powerball: 01, Power Play: 5
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from April 18 drawing
Midday: 5-8-2
Midday Wild: 3
Evening: 3-8-5
Evening Wild: 1
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from April 18 drawing
Midday: 0-1-6-1
Midday Wild: 2
Evening: 4-7-6-9
Evening Wild: 5
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash Pop numbers from April 18 drawing
Early Bird: 08
Morning: 01
Matinee: 05
Prime Time: 04
Night Owl: 05
Check Cash Pop payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Show Me Cash numbers from April 18 drawing
07-10-21-27-33
Check Show Me Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Powerball Double Play numbers from April 18 drawing
02-38-45-53-63, Powerball: 21
Check Powerball Double Play payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize
All Missouri Lottery retailers can redeem prizes up to $600. For prizes over $600, winners have the option to submit their claim by mail or in person at one of Missouri Lottery’s regional offices, by appointment only.
To claim by mail, complete a Missouri Lottery winner claim form, sign your winning ticket, and include a copy of your government-issued photo ID along with a completed IRS Form W-9. Ensure your name, address, telephone number and signature are on the back of your ticket. Claims should be mailed to:
Ticket Redemption
Missouri Lottery
P.O. Box 7777
Jefferson City, MO 65102-7777
For in-person claims, visit the Missouri Lottery Headquarters in Jefferson City or one of the regional offices in Kansas City, Springfield or St. Louis. Be sure to call ahead to verify hours and check if an appointment is required.
For additional instructions or to download the claim form, visit the Missouri Lottery prize claim page.
When are the Missouri Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 3: 12:45 p.m. (Midday) and 8:59 p.m. (Evening) daily.
- Pick 4: 12:45 p.m. (Midday) and 8:59 p.m. (Evening) daily.
- Cash4Life: 8 p.m. daily.
- Cash Pop: 8 a.m. (Early Bird), 11 a.m. (Late Morning), 3 p.m. (Matinee), 7 p.m. (Prime Time) and 11 p.m. (Night Owl) daily.
- Show Me Cash: 8:59 p.m. daily.
- Lotto: 8:59 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday.
- Powerball Double Play: 9:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Missouri editor. You can send feedback using this form.
The Missouri Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at April 17, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Mega Millions numbers from April 17 drawing
38-43-44-49-62, Mega Ball: 08
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from April 17 drawing
Midday: 4-8-6
Midday Wild: 2
Evening: 8-8-2
Evening Wild: 1
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from April 17 drawing
Midday: 3-9-4-2
Midday Wild: 4
Evening: 7-3-7-7
Evening Wild: 7
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash Pop numbers from April 17 drawing
Early Bird: 07
Morning: 06
Matinee: 08
Prime Time: 05
Night Owl: 07
Check Cash Pop payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Show Me Cash numbers from April 17 drawing
04-06-25-37-39
Check Show Me Cash payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
Are you a winner? Here’s how to claim your lottery prize
All Missouri Lottery retailers can redeem prizes up to $600. For prizes over $600, winners have the option to submit their claim by mail or in person at one of Missouri Lottery’s regional offices, by appointment only.
To claim by mail, complete a Missouri Lottery winner claim form, sign your winning ticket, and include a copy of your government-issued photo ID along with a completed IRS Form W-9. Ensure your name, address, telephone number and signature are on the back of your ticket. Claims should be mailed to:
Ticket Redemption
Missouri Lottery
P.O. Box 7777
Jefferson City, MO 65102-7777
For in-person claims, visit the Missouri Lottery Headquarters in Jefferson City or one of the regional offices in Kansas City, Springfield or St. Louis. Be sure to call ahead to verify hours and check if an appointment is required.
For additional instructions or to download the claim form, visit the Missouri Lottery prize claim page.
When are the Missouri Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 9:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 3: 12:45 p.m. (Midday) and 8:59 p.m. (Evening) daily.
- Pick 4: 12:45 p.m. (Midday) and 8:59 p.m. (Evening) daily.
- Cash4Life: 8 p.m. daily.
- Cash Pop: 8 a.m. (Early Bird), 11 a.m. (Late Morning), 3 p.m. (Matinee), 7 p.m. (Prime Time) and 11 p.m. (Night Owl) daily.
- Show Me Cash: 8:59 p.m. daily.
- Lotto: 8:59 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday.
- Powerball Double Play: 9:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Missouri editor. You can send feedback using this form.
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