The transmigrations of spring/ By William Pitt Head (around 1990)
After he had gone, she waited
For signs of tulip, crocus, and narcissus
That he had planted during the fall
To tell her that he had not failed again
As he had with other puttings-in of seed;
He had been one capable of small successes
Amidst great losses in all he did,
And what significance he had
Consisted of slight distinctions that he made,
Little alterations, against a certain fate.
Of the scaled-down cemetery for pets
Under the canopy of summer's arbor's grapes
He had conceived in the yard out back,
He had said that his friends were thus transformed
And kept and he redeemed by having
Them still near, possessions of death
Beyond and between living and dying:
His was, as she had seen, a vague philosophy,
More of trying than achieving,
More of heart than head.
In mid-March, the tiny shoots appeared.
Born near Lexington, North, Carolina, I was educated at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, B. A. and M.A in English. I went on to teach English at Western Carolina University (3 years) and LSU, Baton Rouge, (2 Years). I married William Pitt Head in 1975. He was a graduate of Huntingdon College and had worked on his PH.D in English at the University of Alabama. At Huntingdon College he had become involved in civil rights during the time of the 1961 "Freedom Rides" . He was also a college
instructor at Western Carolina, University of Alabama while working on his Ph.D and Marion Military Institute as well as Troy State University. He left Troy State
during the Wallace Administration to
remain true to his principles. Ironically, he became a city bus driver in Montgomery for over a year after we moved back to Alabama to be near his aging relatives in 1979. By that time his parents were both deceased.
He died December 8, 2000 at the age of 61. We had been married for 25 years but had no children.
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