A WORD FROM Tark Mackintosh
Between the end of 1948 and beginning of 1950, Professor Stout composed more than 300 of his infamous Poems Without Words, of which tragically the majority has been lost to posterity. ‘Poem Without Words No. 78’ has come down to us by a fortuitous and history-changing act of Stout’s loyal housekeeper and biographer, Ava Potter Barclay, who ‘transcribed’ her favorite verses without words in (blank) pages of her diary. Scholars are in agreement that ‘Poem 78’ is probably a lyric on the theme of love in the time of polio, or else of the defense (defence) of friendship based on mutual self-respect from a society of hangman jurors, Professor Stout being an absolute fan of juxtaposing the mundane and spiritual — if you can take his word for it! The poem has been estimated to be between ten and twenty-eight lines long.
-Tark Mackintosh
Filealea, CA
November 2002
POEM WITHOUT WORDS NO. 78
Image generated on Magic Studio
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE…
A Compendium of Gemstones by James Callan
The Melancholy Man of Leisure by Hugh Blanton
2 poems by Ryan Quinn Flanagan
YOU DON’T NECESSARILY NEED CHAMPAGNE TO TOAST THE CONQUEST OF A MINOR EUROPEAN NATION
Chicken by Joe Couture
Leave a Reply