Poet

By Keith Waldrop b. 1932 Keith Waldrop

The wind dying, I find a city deserted, except for crowds of

people moving and standing.

Those standing resemble stories, like stones, coal from the

death of plants, bricks in the shape of teeth.

I begin now to write down all the places I have not been—

starting with the most distant.

I build houses that I will not inhabit.

Keith Waldrop, "Poet" from Analogies of Escape. Copyright © 1997 by Keith Waldrop. Reprinted by permission of Burning Deck Press.

Source: Analogies of Escape (Burning Deck Press, 1997)

Biography

Keith Waldrop, who was awarded the 2009 National Book Award for poetry for Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy, has been a prominent voice in American poetry for over forty years. He is the author of over a dozen books of poetry, prose, and translations. With Rosmarie Waldrop he co-edits Burning Deck Press.

Waldrop was born in Emporia, Kansas in 1932. He enrolled in the pre-med program at Kansas State Teacher’s College, but his . . .

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