Author: William Matthews

Most of the time he worked, a sort of sleep With a purpose, so far as I could tell. How […]

Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch’s wife He would have written sonnets all his life? DON JUAN, III, 63-4 […]

I was miserable, of course, for I was seventeen And so I swung into action and wrote a poem And […]

“First, do no harm,” the Hippocratic Oath begins, but before she might enjoy Such balm, the docs had to harm […]

I read to the entire plebe class, In two batches. Twice the hall filled With bodies dressed alike, each toting […]

The lump of coal my parents teased I’d find in my Christmas stocking Turned out each year to be an […]

So here the great man stood, Fermenting malice and poems We have to be nearly as fierce Against ourselves as […]

“Perhaps you’ll tire of me,” muses My love, although she’s like a great city To me, or a park that […]

I like divorce. I love to compose Letters of resignation; now and then I send one in and leave in […]

What did I think, a storm clutching a clarinet And boarding a downtown bus, headed for lessons? I had pieces […]