I WAS Willie Metcalf. They used to call me "Doctor Meyers" Because, they said, I looked like him. And he was my father, according to Jack McGuire. I lived in the livery stable, Sleeping on the floor Side by side with Roger Baughman's bulldog, Or sometimes in a stall. I could crawl between the legs of the wildest horses Without getting kicked -- we knew each other. On spring days I tramped through the country To get the feeling, which I sometimes lost, That I was not a separate thing from the earth. I used to lose myself, as if in sleep, By lying with eyes half-open in the woods. Sometimes I talked with animals -- even toads and snakes -- Anything that had an eye to look into. Once I saw a stone in the sunshine Trying to turn into jelly. In April days in this cemetery The dead people gathered all about me, And grew still, like a congregation in silent prayer. I never knew whether I was a part of the earth With flowers growing in me, or whether I walked -- Now I know. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JOHN ERICSSON DAY MEMORIAL, 1918 by CARL SANDBURG THE FINDING OF THE LYRE by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL TO HIS DEAD BODY by SIEGFRIED SASSOON SPRING WATER by KENNETH SLADE ALLING SONNETS OF MANHOOD: SONNET 24. BALCOMBE FOREST by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) WOUNDED by JESSAMINE SLAUGHTER BURGUM TOO MUCH LAKE CHAMPLAIN IN VERMONT by DANIEL LEAVENS CADY ON HEARING JAMES W. RILEY READ; FROM A KENTUCKY STANDPOINT by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER SR. |