“Gift”–a short poem

While waiting for some feedback from the editor of Lending Times, I thought I’d give you another piece of verse from the archives to hold a spot until I can get to the Tuesday review later this evening. We have the Halloween parade; we’ll be walking proudly with the students, staff, and families of Franklin Township Elementary, soaring Eagles all. I’ll get to the review after that.

I’ve been having so much fun going through my poetry archives, gaining pleasure especially from the pieces I forgot I wrote.

This, however, is not one of those. I remember “Gift” well. This poem took first place in the short poetry division at the West Virginia Writers’ Conference in 2001. It earned me $200. If every poem I ever wrote earned like that, you fine folks would be wondering where I went. The answer would probably be Tahiti.

This is “Gift,” a little something for the bookworms out there.

Gift

I gave a man a book

And said, “Read this thing for me.

See how far 26 letters can go.

Take this ink that some company paid 68 cents for

And this wood pulp for which they paid much less,

Take this cover that was designed

By someone who gets paid to design covers…

And discover a world of words,

Far removed from that of corporations, money, and cover designs,

Whose only boundaries are those of the mind and spirit.”

February 2001—English 399