Pericopes

Pericopes are cuttings and so are always items taken out of context. Sometimes, however, cuttings are sources of new growth when single stems with ragged ends are placed in a new medium, form roots, and grow over time into something full and whole. Most turn out to be merely ornamental and are destined for their opening and a short life. They provide some color and hasten to a dessicated demise. Archibald MacLeish wrote to me that he hoped to leave behind a few poems that would be hard to get rid of. These pericopes will likely be easy in the going away, and since they have now been cut away from me, I have no more say about them. A number of these cuttings are about boys, a group who are having a renaissance of interest everywhere. Like cuttings they have always had a hard time of it and deserve some special attention. All of these are love poems since each was written with someone in mind. They were written from the early 1970s on.