Landis Everson Poems

Valentine, valentine you arrive
in a town car with a chauffered envelope,
scattered pieces of you enrolled in schoolyards
...

Almost
the first reindeer
shipped North by boxcar from Lapland
but a toy model
...

Defend me. I am not capable.
The river sweeps by three minutes at once
cleansing me of guilt. But the bear
...

A tree that grew in the Garden of Eden
a tree of innocence called
the Tree of Good and Evil. It was harmless
...

Put nothing down to distress the reader.
No barking dog.
No rustle in the place whispers belong
or photos of petals near collapse.
...

How did the valentines age so fast?
Most of the names are forgotten.
Billy, Billy, Billy, Jill
I think strangers sent them out like advertising
...

Now it's time to play. Nobody says,
like they used to, but in my bones
the desire overwhelms me. 'Write!
Make a poem,' say the bones.
...

'What you are struggling with,' said
the psychologist, 'is
a continuous song, something like
a telephone's tone. Nebulous, noncommittal,
...

The lonely breakfast table starts the day,
an adjustment is made to understand
why the other chair is empty. The morning
beautiful and still to be, should woo me. Yet
...