Poem: Largesse, for Tera Ramsey

Not Dorothy's yellow brick road,

or Aladdin's famous carpet,

or palm branches laid

for a conquering hero,

or flowers strewn

in the path of the Pope.

But my own driveway,

showered with pear

and tulip blossoms,

ushering me out to do battle

not with giants,

but with quite ordinary foes.

Who needs the magic of myth

when our familiar, commonplace world

is so splendid?

Robert Hamblin is an emeritus professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University, where he taught for 50 years and served as the founding director of the school's Center for Faulkner Studies. He is the author or editor of almost 60 books, including poetry, fiction, literary criticism, biographies and memoirs. He is currently working on a series of ekphrastic poems based on photographs he admires. As he says, "Photographs speak; all you have to do is listen."