Dear Gary, Thought I’d share the news
your muse set free on Bubbs Creek
damn-near fifty years ago proclaiming
space with words the common man
in all of us can hold in our hands
and use for the real work, if we want
to learn to live together, understand
that we grow smaller upon the mountain.
Two bronze cowboys look-off on a loose rein
from your shelf—sweet accolades
that sustain a solitary art that we can never claim
as solely ours. What great joy it’s been!
How rich the life! And should the stars
align just right, we have a place for you
at our table, at that grand Oklahoma City
shindig this coming April. —John
And ever-thankful to the old man on the coast:
If God has been good enough to give you a poet
Then listen to him. But for God’s sake let him alone until he is dead;
no prizes, no ceremony,
They kill the man.
– Robinson Jeffers (“Let Them Alone”)
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