Call

A muskrat in a tussock
of grass, a farthing
for a nightingale,
a slipper filled with
robins' feathers: what's
the key?

Nothing is learned
except forgetfulness.

The bittern will
not perch in trees;
its song is slow
"like a mallet driving
a stake into the mud."

 
by Howard McCord

Howard McCord is the author of more than twenty-five volumes of poetry, short fiction, and essays, including The Great Toad Hunt and Other Expeditions (Crossing Press), The Wisdom of Silenus: Collected Essays (St. Andrews College Press), The Old Beast (Copper Canyon), and, with Walter Lowenfels, The Life of Fraenkel's Death (Washington State U. Press). Since 1971 he has taught at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, first as director of the Creative Writing Program, later as director of the Ph.D.--Creative Emphasis degree program. Among his many honors are two NEA fellowships, the 1990 Ohioana Award for poetry, the Golden Nugget Award (UT at El Paso), the Hart Crane Award, a National Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a Fulbright fellowship. The Man Who Walked to The Moon is his first novel. © 1998 Howard McCord