From The Half-Red House

Back before I met her, when she was in college, my wife used to attend poetry readings at Gansevoort Pier in New York. These were started in 1964 by a poet named Ed Blair (Hugh Edward Blair 1909-1967). Last night I was drawn by an inexplicable urge to take a slim posthumous volume of his poetry off the shelf. After reading and being impressed by a few of his short poems, I read a little of the biographical sketch at the back, written by his wife Ann. I was shocked to realize that this man was a spiritual brother that I never met. He was involved in the IWW, and he was one of the creators of the international auxiliary langauge Interlingua, among other common interests. Denise and I spent a delightful half hour reading his poems to each other this evening. Here is a short poem which I hope he and Ann wouldn’t mind my reprinting: