Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE TIMES ATLAS; FOR MY MENTOR, LONG DEAD, RICHARD HALLIBURTON, by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TIMES ATLAS; FOR MY MENTOR, LONG DEAD, RICHARD HALLIBURTON, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Today was the coldest day in the history
Last Line: That might leave so many dead.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Halliburton, Richard (1900-1939); Maps; Sea Voyages; Weather


For my mentor, long dead, Richard Halliburton
and his Seven League Boots.

Today was the coldest day in the history
of the Midwest. Thank god for the moon
in this terrible storm.

There are areas far out at sea where
it rains a great deal. Camus said
it rained so hard even the sea was wet.

O god all our continents are only rifted
magma welled up from below. We don't
have a solid place to stand.

A little bullshit here as the Nile
is purportedly eighty miles longer
than the Amazon. I proclaim it a tie.

Pay out your 125 bucks and find out the world
isn't what you think it is but what
it is. We whirl so nothing falls off.
Eels, polar bears, bugs and men enjoy

the maker's design. No one really
leaves this place. O loveliness
of Caribbean sun off water under
trade wind's lilt.

Meanwhile the weather is no longer amusing.
Earth frightens me, the blizzard, house's
shudder, oceanic roar, the brittle night
that might leave so many dead.





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