Sam Hamill: Remembering Kenneth Rexroth

The maple leaves are always green up here,

and the waters of the Sound

always blue. I have been thinking

of you all day, at least

since breezes pushed the rain away

and sunshine burned the fog.

Even now, late afternoon, the coves

of Indian and Marrowstone islands

seem to steam. A small figure

slowly rows the water, stopping

here and there at crab pots in the bay.

In hills unfolding away

from the sleepy little town,

fine old cedars nod in the easy wind

like the kite above the grammar school,

like grand old men.

Copyright 2018 Estate of Sam Hamill. From After Morning Rain published by Tiger Bark Press. Included in Vox Populi by permission of the publisher.

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Sam Hamill (1943-2018) grew up on a Utah farm. He was Founding Editor of Copper Canyon Press and served as Editor there for thirty-two years. He taught in artist-in-residency programs in schools and prisons and worked with Domestic Violence programs. He directed the Port Townsend Writers Conference for nine years, and in 2003 founded Poets Against the War. He is the author of more than forty books, including celebrated translations from ancient Chinese, Japanese, Greek and Latin. (photo: Ian Boyden)