Wednesday, November 4, 2020

RE-READING ALFRED STARR HAMILTON ~






Dark Corner




I wonder if I lived

in a dark corner

all by myself

until the only sun I ever saw

came around in the morning

I wonder if the sunlight

worked its way

through a keyhole

and little by little I was taught

never to tell a lie

I wonder of how the light of day

exerted itself

in my presence





Shoe Factory




Schenectady is a name

Schenectady is a person

Schenectady is a shoe town

Schenectady is a workingman

Schenectady works in a shoe factory

Schenectady is walkative

Schenectady is talkative

What do you know of the road to Albany

What do you know of the road to Rome

What do you know of Troy Hills

What do you know of your shoeleather

What do you know of a similar person

What do you know of the road to Schenectady






Laffs




I laffed

The moon laffed

I couldn't stop laffing

The moon kept on laffing

The moon was for a comedy of errors

I laffed

The soldiers laffed

The moon laffed some moreso



I laffed

The soldiers laffed

There was a ceremony on the moon

The moon was for a sword swallower

I laffed

The soldiers laffed

The moon laffed some moreso

The moon was funnier

There was a madcap on the moon



I laffed

I laffed some moreso

Everyone else laffed

I laffed

The moon laffed

The moon was being celebrated

The moon was being crowned

There was a comedian on the moon






City





The best thing I could think to do

Was to take a brown Crayon over a pair of shoes

And walk as far as I ever did







____________________
The Big Parade
Alfred Starr Hamilton
The Best Cellar Press, 1982





A L F R E D     S T A R R      H A M I L T O N
In another lifetime
I corresponded with
Alfred Starr Hamilton
of Montclair, New Jersey,
even published him,
and now and then I return
to read his poems —
I think this little book
from Best Cellar Press,
a press with another poet behind it,
catches the delights
T H E     B I G     P A R A D E