it only happened once but I knew it was important when it started to rain I grabbed the book of poems and left it was only sprinkles and I started off from the beginning of Paterson somehow William Carlos Williams had become my hero and I felt a little sad my dad left my mom i was 17 so I walked down the old hill past the convent and read aloud in the rain the old path to school and back the book covered with tears I thought

the flowers 

     we loved 
grow also in hell   he said 

the book 
     was very wet
when I got home 

Publisher’s Note:

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963): “...I was cheered/ when I came first to/ know/ that there were flowers also/ in hell.” From his poem Asphodel, That Greeny Flower in Journey to Love (1955), which he originally envisioned as book five of Paterson, his epic poem published in five volumes from 1946 to 1958.

Kath Abela Wilson

is creator and leader of Poets on Site in Pasadena, a writing and poetry performance group in homes, gardens, and museums, active since 2010. Her first book of poetry, Figures of Humor and Strange Beauty, was published in 2019 by Glass Lyre Press in Chicago. She has served as host and editor of a weekly online Poets Salon on ColoradoBlvd.net for several years, and she is secretary of the Tanka Society of America. She performs her work in concert with her husband, Rick Wilson (mathematician, flute player and collector), at readings and at musical and scientific conferences worldwide. She sings, dances, plays percussion and tamboura, and loves yoga and tai chi.