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,…

(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…