Rejection Slip to Editors

I cannot sing to the wax-eared deaf,
Nor paint for the color-blind,
So flunk my verse with the grade of F
Sheer praise of the highest kind.
09-08-91

H. P. Lovecraft: Friend Out of Time

(1890-1937)

What need to add one more
Tribute to the roar
Of shrill posthumous praise,
Nostalgic, loud in these latter days?

It s all been said and said:
Paeans, now he’s dead;
But like so many, I’ve
Wished I’d known him live.
01-01-80

Upon Reading of Lovecraft s Death

Sauk City, 1937

Thank Hastur, August Derleth paused
Upon the railroad bridge, and caused
His grief to turn itself around,
Till firm resolve made his heart pound.
A friend’s death, a friend’s book!
And never once a backward look
With each sure step that giant took.
04-02-79