We Can Do Some Good With Our Lives

Dear Mary,

The first poems of yours I read were in Bly's News of the Universe.  Then, in 1983, I was

in NYC for a summer seminar.  There were bookstores everywhere!  In a big store in an old

building, I found American Primitive.  I didn't have much money, so I pulled the books I

wanted out a little way from the others as I went along, then went back to choose the one

I would buy: yours.  I pulled it off the shelf and happened to look up at the same time; there

was a guy sitting atop a tall stepladder in the middle of the room, and he had a little gun

holstered on his belt.  The store detective.  He looked at me and nodded.  I've been reading,

and teaching, your poems ever since.  I invited you to read at Austin Peay State Univ. in

Tennessee in the late 80s I think it was.  You met with students and did a wonderful reading.

Both I and my students have always been given heart by your poems.  They speak to us

with such courage and sanity; they give us the confidence to know that we can do some

good with our lives.

I'm retired now.  I write a little and read a lot.  I'll pray for you each day to be well.

David Till