Notes on Poverty

By Hayden Carruth 1921–2008 Hayden Carruth

Was I so poor

in those damned days

that I went in the dark

in torn shoes

and furtiveness

to steal fat ears

of cattle corn

from the good cows

and pound them

like hard maize

on my worn Aztec

stone? I was.

“Notes on Poverty” from Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey: Poems, 1991-1995 by Hayden Carruth, published by Copper Canyon Press in 1996. www.coppercanyonpress.org

Source: Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey: Poems 1991-1995 (Copper Canyon Press, 1996)

Biography

"Now and then a poet comes along whose work ranges across wide and diverse territories of form, attitude, and emotion—yet with the necessary intelligence that belies a deep, lifelong engagement with tradition—so that variance never seems mere experimentation or digression, but improvisation," wrote Midwest Quarterly contributor Matthew Miller. "Hayden Carruth is such an artist."

The National Book Award won by Carruth in 1996 . . .

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