Sam Hamill: In the Company of Ancient Masters

It is autumn in the autumn

of my life. I sit on my deck

in the evening light

and watch a slow boat pass by.

Tonight, a woman I love and

an Argentine Malbec.

The eastern mountaintop is ice.

The sky is pale blue.

I rise from my post

to fetch some wine and light

the lights. So little done.

So little to do.

Copyright 2018 The 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, worked with Domestic Violence programs, and in 2003, founded Poets Against the War. Hamill is the author of more than forty books, including celebrated translations from ancient Chinese, Japanese, Greek and Latin. (photo: Ian Boyden)