Sunday, March 23, 2008

Kansan Lana Myers is working on a book of May Williams Ward's poetry. Here is a springtime description she found written by Ward. This is a charm to bring springtime closer:

"A wide, tall sky the more impressive for the flatness of the plain, great free winds sometimes rising to tornado crescendo, a subtle color scheme of green and tauny gold with sage-grey, and a people salty, racy, and individual . . . the Kansas prairie provides these varied stimuli for her poets. Then if any Kansan writes verse that is limited in outlook it is not the fault of our sky; if pettiness shows, it is not the fault of our winds. Blatant color could not truly reflect the aspect of the plain, nor conventional characterization indicate the flavor of her people."


—May Williams Ward
From the foreword to Kansas Poets, edited by Henry Harrison (New York: House of Henry Harrison, 1935)