POEMS BY RICHARD BEAR

DESIRE FOR THE LAND

Poems by Richard Bear, with drawings by Ernie Goertzen. Thought 
to be the first book of poems to appear first on the World Wide Web 
and then in print. You may preview the book at 
http://www-vms.uoregon.edu/~rbear/desire.html. 

        She sells books from nine to six. They are
        good books, well bound, well written, colorful
        to the eye, and children love them, but
        the town is poor. She sits waiting for hours
        for one grandmother to come in and buy one book
        for a favored grandchild. The owner of the store
        is her friend; she cannot leave her just now, but the store,
        she knows, is not her place in life. All
        she has ever wanted is to farm: at evening,
        when the dinner things are cleared, and the hot sun
        drops behind the cottonwood, she farms.
        Food for the ducks, and soapy water for broccoli;
        old lettuce gone to seed comes out; the hay
        is rearranged, and fall peas go in. She stops
        only to hear the geese pass overhead,
        then bends among her plants until the stars,
        first one and then another, leap and are caught
        in the hair of approaching night, which is
        so like her hair. She comes in stained with soil
        to the elbows, and leans against the table,
        extending an open palm. Look, she says,
        her eyes on fire. Marigold seeds! And these
        are calendulas.

For more information, please send SASE, International Reply Coupon, 
or email to: 

        Richard Bear
        Stony Run Press
        36690 Wheeler Road
        Pleasant Hill, OR 97455 USA 

        rbear@efn.org