EVERY year Emily Dickinson sent one friendthe first arbutus bud in her garden. In a last will and testament Andrew Jacksonremembered a friend with the gift of GeorgeWashington’s pocket spy-glass. Napoleon too,…
Posts published in “Poems”
(Chirstmas Day, 1917)THE FIVE O’CLOCK prairie sunset is a strong man going to sleep after a long day in a cornfield. The red dust of a rusty crimson is fixed with…
AMONG the bumble-bees in red-top hay, a freckled field of brown-eyed Susans dripping yellow leaves in July, I read your heart in a book. And your mouth of blue pansy-I know…
LAY me on an anvil, O God.Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar.Let me pry loose old walls.Let me lift and loosen old foundations. Lay me on an anvil,…
THIS is the song I rested with:The right shoulder of a strong man I leaned on.The face of the rain that drizzled on the short neck of a canal boat.The…
WHY should I be wonderingHow you would look in black velvet and yellow? in orange and green?I who cannot remember whether it was a dash of blueOr a whirr of…
DRUM on your drums, batter on your banjoes, sob on the long cool winding saxophones. Go to it, O jazzmen. Sling your knuckles on the bottoms of the happy tin pans,…
Tomb of a millionaire, A multi-millionaire, ladies and gentlemen, Place of the dead where they spend every year The usury of twenty-five thousand dollars For upkeep and flowers To keep…
PIETRO has twenty red and blue balloons on a string.They flutter and dance pulling Pietro’s arm.A nickel apiece is what they sell for. Wishing children tag Pietro’s heels. He sells out and…
THE POLICEMAN buys shoes slow and careful;the teamster buys gloves slow and careful;they take care of their feet and hands;they live on their feet and hands. The milkman never argues;he…