Bill Yarrow’s Comments

“Purveyors of Leeches”
This poem comes from a reading of Wordsworth’s “Resolution and Independence” and a remembrance of “Caps for Sale” by Esphyr Slobodkina. Is there a pun in the last line? Some readers think so.

“He Spreadeth Sharp Things Upon the Mire”
The title comes from Job. So do the last two lines, though the last line inverts “face” and “garment.”

“Departure: Arrival: Return”
Allusions to Peter, Paul, and Mary; Paul Simon; Mike Figgis; John Milton.

The Thalia (mentioned in “Departure: Arrival: Return”) “is best known for showing art house movies and classic film revivals for decades. One might even say it was archetypal of the Upper West Side experience, immortalized in the movie Annie Hall.”—The Bowery Boys: New York City History.

© Matt Weber, 1986

“The sun is resting / on the hill like the final drop / of Thomas Hardy’s blood”
cf. “The sun was resting on the hill like a drop of blood on an eyelid …” from chapter 35 of The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy.

“Like rusting sumac to the staghorn / aphid”
Aphids on Sumac
Melaphis rhois

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