Show Me the Place, 80

“Show me the place.”

Duke Senior in As You Like It (2.1)

80: Cummington, Mass.—Wm. Cullen Bryant; July 10, 2002

To Cummington we drove that day

To see where Bryant once had been.

We walked around outside—the way

You do when something’s closed—and when

You really have no other choice.

The day was gorgeous—fair and blue—

And so it was that Dan and Joyce

Again did what they love to do.

We also knew that Cummington

Was home to Richard Wilbur,** too—

A poet very bright—and one

Whose lines were pure and clear and true.

*William Cullen Bryant, journalist and poet, 1794–1878

**Wilbur, 1921–2017