Virginia Is For Families

The vacant stare you now possess

Slumped upon my chair

Reminds me of the mannequin

Awaiting his new suit of clothes.

To help the young men on their way

And dress them well upon their day.

So they may please their lovely brides

As you once pleased

Before you died.

But now you won’t be easily found

Unless your love lives underground.

And I will miss her more than you

My cup when love was new.

*******

She screams and runs now through the door

And sadness sends her to the floor.

She gazes up into your eyes

And wonders where your spirit flies.

I’m here behind you

Won’t you see?

Admiring

Your solemn beauty.

The chains are gone

The pain has left

Yet I am now

Alone

And bereft.

Without you now I am no one

There is no place under the sun

To be a home when you’re away

And so I’ll wait for you each day.

Just sit right here upon this sill

And watch the days pass by until

One day you join me and we fly

Away from here

To paradise.

from Death

“He’s come out of the man

and he’s let

the man go–

the liar”

William Carlos Williams

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Born in Rutherford, New Jersey, near the city of Paterson, William Carlos Williams studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. There he became friends with Ezra Pound and Hilda Doolittle (later known as H. D.) and started to think of his medical career as a means of supporting himself while he composed poetry, even as he interned in New York City and pursued postgraduate studies in Germany. Williams made Rutherford his lifelong home and practiced medicine until he retired, writing at night and spending weekends in New York City with other writers and artists. Williams consciously wrote poetry that provided a counterpoint to that of Frost, Pound, and Eliot. In his work, he wished to speak like an American within an American context of small cities, immigrants, and workers. He wanted his poetic line to reflect the rhythm of everyday speech and drew his subject matter from ordinary surroundings — a painting, a red wheelbarrow, a dish of plums. Williams’s collections include Spring and All (both poetry and prose; 1923); Paterson, which was published in five books (1946, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958); and Pictures from Brueghel (1962). Williams also wrote essays, some of which are collected in In the American Grain (1925).

http://www2.wwnorton.com/college/english/naal/vol_D/explorations/williams.htm

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