Tuesday's Poem: "from Whatever Became of Me" by Richard Shelton

3
this morning a woodpecker woke me
practicing on his drum
and all afternoon cicadas rang
like the telephones I haven't answered

I am what has become of me
a man who lives in the desert

where coyotes wail more skillfully
than hired mourners
at the funeral of an Eastern king

where every night the stars
whose light I have not earned
and will never deserve
return as if to keep a promise

and even the rain
when it falls is coming home

Richard Shelton

I read this poem in a small book, Poems of the American West. It is a collection of poetry edited by Robert Mezey and part of Knopf's Everyman's Library (which I think are some of the most beautiful books.) The book was a gift from my older sister during her last visit.

The above pictures are from an early December weekend in Joshua Tree National Park.