FROM THE CRYPT-MEISTERS...

UMASS GOES DOT COM

ON THE HORIZON

OBITS AND DEATH NOTICES

SMILES OF A WINTER AFTERNOON

TALK ABOUT BEING YANKEE

ANNUAL REPORT

SNOW IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

SWEET SHARK

DELIGHTING IN DISNEY

RAISING CHANGE

PERSONAL SONG

BOOKING IT

MY WHOLE WORLD

Annual Report

Only one Disorderly Person was reported
(No one cared enough to report me.).
Likewise, only one Noise Complaint
(Can the whole village be deaf?).
And, in an entire year, there was only one
case of Indecent Exposure
(Is no one paying attention?).
Talk about breaking records, in all of 1989
There was only one Disturbed Person
(I hope they spelled my name right.).
On the bright side, eleven persons
were reported missing, and thirty-six
were identified as Suspicious.
Three motor vehicles were abandoned.
And there were five Deer Complaints
(Well pardon us for existing.).

— JAMES TATE
from Worshipful Company of Fletchers, 1994

This poem by Pelham resident, Pulitzer Prizewinner, and UMass professor of English James Tate was reprinted in the Winter 1996 UMass. It appears again here with his permission to inaugurate an occasional series of poems by UMass people.

Some dog's been down Jewett already this morning,
spiking drifts with his yolk-yellow piss.
Eager growl and yip of snowblowers at dawn;
pleased men steering pickups with plowblades.
Up Vernon, puffs upward: Sweet souls clearing paths.
Clear, high shell of aluminum-bright air.

— PATRICIA WRIGHT

This contribution from the editor, along with the one above by professor of English and Pulitzer Prize-winner James Tate, inaugurate an occasional series of poems by UMass people.