Once I lived in a village not far
from the thirty-eighth parallel
near Kaesong, in fact
...
Listen up, I speak to you
from the region of the damned
and those who lust after fame
and wealth as a poet
...
I'd like to write a romantic comedy
in four acts like Will Shakespeare did
Tragedy's not for me, you can see
by the bells and cap I wear
...
Taverns along Milwaukee Avenue
near the expressway are bright
with red neon beer signs
...
Once I saw a black & white photo
taken by a Japanese tourist
of London schoolboys
walking briskly to grammar school.
...
Every Spring I look forward to the storms
of November that roll down from up north
Green trees and warm sun adumbrates
...
Far from the raging sea
folks born and bred ashore
live in a town called Limbo
tucked away in a green glen
...
It was the eve of Thanksgiving
and a night black and cold as hell,
with a stiff north wind blowing
down across the barren slopes
...
One summer I taught with a guy fixated on flicks
I mean those 16mm films teachers used
to get away from textbooks
...
Let me tell you how it went, Skipper,
that day we came to the first of the islands;
our barge struck a coral reef about 1500 yards offshore.
We sat high and dry in the shallow waters.
...