Thanks for this delightful sketch of the man himself, Candice. The poetry is
rather widely scattered on the web.
'Summons' is at: http://inspirationpeak.com/poetry/summons.html
'Catch' is at http://www.courses.ncsu.edu/classes/eng112/catch.html
'Earthworm' is -where else? - at the Compost Resource Page
http://www.oldgrowth.org/compost/poetry.html
'Silent Poem' is at http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/323.html
I'm sure I managed to find a little group of them last time, but I've lost
the address.
Best wishes
Matthew
-----Original Message-----
From: Candice Ward <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 28 February 2001 07:28
Subject: Re: STIMULUS: POETRY AND IDENTITY
>Matthew, I must thank YOU tonight for the laughter and astonishment your
>Robert Francis anecdote provoked (and ask you where you found his poems
>online, while I'm at it--maybe he got better since I knew him in 1970s
>Amherst, when he was already an old man and a pretty bad poet!). Anyway, to
>back up, he was one of Amherst's many eccentrics, and Joe Langland was very
>fond of him, even defended his poetry when the smartasses in my MFA cohort
>would giggle over it. But what I'll never forget is Robert's cabin, where
>Joe took a few of us for afternoon tea one winter day--afternoon tea being
>the kind of ceremony Robert was famous for, as he was for this cabin, which
>he'd had built for himself on the shoestring annuity that saw him (very
>frugally) through his long old age. (Robert's poverty was so legendary, in
>fact, that Joe stopped at a bakery on the way to tea and stocked up with
far
>more pastry than our little group would consume at tea so that Robert would
>have some leftovers.)
>
>His cabin was like a little dollhouse, or rather a little girl's playhouse,
>with everything scaled down not only for efficiency and economic reasons in
>Robert's case, but simply because he was so tiny himself--and rather pretty
>at that, with his fey manner, which I think you'd have enjoyed, as I did,
>although it was hard not to giggle when he showed us his bedroom (the cabin
>had only 2 or 3 rooms altogether) and there, on the nightstand beside his
>pretty-quilt-covered bed, was a framed miniature of the Emily Dickinson
>portrait that hangs at Amherst College. But when Robert noticed me staring
>at it, he said, very seriously, "She's the love of my life, you know." Such
>a sweet memory you've brought back, Matthew--and what a sweetly odd little
>man Robert Francis was!
>
>Candice
>
>
>
>_____________________
>> I received an email from a namesake who wanted to know if I might be
related
>> to the American poet Robert Francis, a friend of Robert Frost, then
another
>> from someone who found my website when trying to track down Robert
Francis
>> poems on the web. So I found some of his poems online myself, and enjoyed
>> them. He seems to be unknown in the UK, but I don't know why - they were
>> quirky, witty pastoral poems that reminded me not only of Frost but also
of
>> Norman MacCaig. I'd like to read more.
>>
>> Best wishes
>>
>> Matthew
>_____________________
>>> The only time I tried a search on my own name it brought up a Dave
Kennedy
>>> who plays bass in a US grunge metal band called Poetic Rage. You
couldn't
>>> make it up.
>>>
>>> On-line identity is weird because it makes you *ownable* and knowable in
a
>>> completely different way. I got an e-mail last week from someone in the
US
>>> with the same surname as me, also a poet, who'd come across my work and
>> just
>>> wanted to say *congratulations my fellow Kennedy*. That's the weird bit
*my
>>> fellow Kennedy* - as if we've all got something more in common than just
>> the
>>> name.
>>>
>>> cheers
>>> David
>
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