To Miss Joan Pink
Your poetry book from 1946
was recently acquired by me
at a book fair in Chicago.
It appears to have been lightly used
during its first go-round
on your college campus.
This wasn’t anything different
from when I was on campus
two generations after you were.
College students in the 1940s, or the 1980s
or any decade before or since,
aren’t much inclined to read poetry.
But some could eventually reach a place
where spending money on poetry
isn’t such a crazy idea.
So I’ll start paging through this
to see if anything of interest
can be found inside.
Thanks for playing a part
in putting this book into my hands.
Now let’s see where it leads to.
