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Troy  Skaggs's avatar

Thank you for the Sherwood Anderson quote Linh. After mentioning him in your last piece, I remembered a poem about him by Charles Bukowski and had to look it up.

Both of my parents grew up on small family farms. The Sherwood Anderson line about the virtue of basic innocence reminded me of a photo of my paternal grandparents around the time of their marriage in the nineteen thirties. Those were hard times but the contentment in their faces was genuine. This one really hit home. Two generations removed from that and I can feel it. I'm so glad that I got to experience a small bit of that life before it went away. Summers detasseling corn stuck with me. I guess that's why working a ketchup tomato harvest recently was a true joy. I'd tear up sometimes as the sunrises hit us, sadness and joy too strong for a straight face. No big deal in the middle of a field.

566. one for Sherwood Anderson - Charles Bukowski

sometimes I forget about him and his peculiar

innocence, almost idiotic, awkward and mawkish.

he liked walking over bridges and through cornfields.

tonight I think about him, the way the lines were,

one felt space between his lines, were,

and felt space between his lines, air

and he told it so the lines remained

carved there

something like van Gogh.

he took his time

looking about

sometimes running to save something.

then at other times giving it all away

he didn't understand Hemingway's neon tattoo,

found Faulkner much too clever.

he was a midwestern hick

he took his time.

he was as far away from Fitzgerald as he was

from Paris

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Robert Jefferson's avatar

Here in my corner of Asia I’m pleased to know that you, Linh, have eyes to see what so many other people can’t see or pretend not to. Enjoy the rest of this beautiful day.

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