Of his city, editor Joseph Harrington warned, “If anyone discovers a “Lawrence School,” hold onto your wallet. It’s seriously eclectic & still too small to have cliques; hell, these people all drink together. Lawrence, a college town, wears Town and Gown as a reversible suit.”
To commemorate the anniversary, Joseph selected a poem from his edition to revisit. “I’d have to choose a poem by Kenneth Irby, whose 75th birthday will be celebrated with a symposium here in Lawrence on November. 5. This poem was originally published in LOCUSPOINT and appears in the “previously uncollected” section of Ken’s collected work, The Intent On: Collected Poems 1962-2006 (North Atlantic, 2009).
[on Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s 200th birthday, 6 Mar 2006]
so one tree will send out branch to join another and be saved
so the rock wall and its climber
elusive records, books
in what other dimensions inter-live
and returning maybe or not staying
and only in the mind keeping
and the memory itself going
flake flaking flaky from the start itself
no way to throw another after to find
and in the far distance in the interstice
another orb coming
or maybe here its cloud
