L.R. Harvey Poetry

Reflection to My Students: Written in a Moment of Bitterness After Receiving a Paycheck I never found the key to financial wealth Myself, so I won't pretend To offer it; If money's the goal, consider pursuing health Professions or banking, and spend Your precious time In books on brittle bones and paper bones With wordy Latin names Or models meant To help you understand financial growth. The physically and fiscally lame Will thank the time You spent in school by signing hefty checks That pay your bills or fill Your Mustang's tank. I doubt that I can offer this sort of wealth. But the wealth I'll give will spill Like so much gold, A flowing gold of words and not of coin, A gold you'll never store In earthly banks Or spend on faster and bigger houses - And yet a wealth I'm sure Is worth more than gold: An eternity of temporary escapes, An intimate insight into The human condition.

"What kind of poetry do you like?" He seemed the type who liked to talk of such things: The kind of man who knows the words of the world, Who can sense the speech of evening rain on wind, Who listens well to the quiet laugh of leaves.      "What kind of poetry do you like?" I asked, And watched the question marinate within His mellow, summer-sunset mind. He chuckled: "A baby's smile; The sound of summer cicadas; A crunchy leaf; My favorite poems Are unperturbed by words."