Dear Editor,
I’ve finished my book. Several lifetimes to write
summer after summer trying hard to write it down
discarding thousands of pages. I am not a natural
winnower some people are. I do not winnow I gather
more is more my nature than less. I tried to describe
why I love people and all that they say in a way
that could help us to understand how different we are
and now that those differences seem even bigger
and yet there is always an and yet a few weeks ago
we went to the small book village nearby
321 local inhabitants a pharmaceutical plant
in town employs a few thousand people
not good to workers many
earn their living in that plant six used bookstores
in the small center of town mostly owned by people
who taught, have pensions now, always wanted
a bookstore the factory workers
buy good books and so do the locals:
usual mix of hard lives shared zucchini shared tomatoes
peach pies with vanilla ice cream every single summer.
I love the word winnow. after ossie Davis introduced the "Paul Robinson student film",@ your bread & roses event, I saw him in the parking lot across the street. I thanked him for working with our students. I reminded him that "pollen & seeds travel with the help of the wind some land on concrete . however, he gave our sprouts a fertile place to land".- got a handshake AND a big ossie smile.-xx