Fiction
Summer 1958
The Drowning
The old people were standing in a self-protecting group Ion the small triangle of beach. After all, this portion had been designated as their beach. Yet they seemed to be […]
Poetry
Autumn 1957
Loneliness Is an Open Cage
Loneliness is an open cage in which I sit, a watching bird, not with eyes white lidded or shoulders hunched between looped wings, but gently fluting hope and whistling soft […]
Poetry
Autumn 1957
Man in a Secret Cottage
Speak to me of love, the double-aimed and tripple-lisped, see what she wears underneath to make her so durableand yet such a saint. I would scud with her down lakes […]
Poetry
Autumn 1957
Hail and Farewell
When I walked into my house today a memory sat in my corner, its Botticelli eyes cottoning me, its mouth sentimental as berries, and I had no comforting Shakespeare to […]
Poetry
Winter 1948
Accidentals
Of Eloise, the tall, sweet breasted one, now polished off between sleek Buick and rusty Pontiac on the giraffe spotted avenue, this is a song and a memory. She clutched […]
Poetry
Summer 1945
State of Soul in Grand Rapids
This is the city of my anger, the warden of my pain.Had it scribbled on my cuff in contradictions, had itingrown in my knees; but reined my dogs in whenI […]
Poetry
Summer 1945
Sentimental Theme
Frankly, Mother, we have fed you always aconiteand antimony, but our best behaviors sat byat the table in those polite years whereofwe had gladly composed a commensurate sonnet,but lacked the […]
Fiction
Spring 1944
When It Thundered
On those formidable spikes of the cast iron fence a man had once speared himself. That was before the fence had been painted vermilion, and had been dark green. The […]